Post Oak Revisited
One of the most overlooked and underutilized tool in poker is the post oak bluff. This move was discussed in Doyle Brunson’s popular book Super System and, for those of you unfamiliar with the play, it involves making a small bet into a large pot as a bluff, because it doesn’t have to succeed very often to be a profitable play; and sometimes a small bet looks stronger than a big one.
Well, I wanted to discuss a few variations of the post oak bluff here and how they can be powerful tools when used appropriately in your game against thinking players. First off, I want to be very clear that much of what I’m about to write won’t work in micro stakes games or other poker games where the players aren’t capable of sophisticated thought. Small bets into big pots will simply be called at those levels based on pot odds, and you’ll just be tossing money away.
I believe the reference in Super System actually refers to a post oak bluff mostly when it occurs after a scare card hits on the river. I want to talk more about how it can be an effective tool on earlier streets, especially during the middle stages of a tournament, and will use two hand examples from this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to demonstrate.
First off, let’s discuss why it works against thinking players. I like to use this play primarily in the middle to late stages of tournaments when the stack sizes are often 40 big blinds or less deep. It’s most effective with small- to medium-sized stacks, because small bets at that stage look like you’re “trapping” players by enticing them with such a small bet. No one likes to look stupid and call a small bet on the fl op or turn, then face an all-in on the river and then end up staring at the nuts; so this move works psychologically from the standpoint that if your opponents suspect you might be trapping on the fl op or turn, the threat of larger bets on future streets is what prevents them from calling your bluff. It’s not the 5000 you bet into the 20,000 pot that they’re worried about it’s the other 35,000 you have sitting behind that. In fact, this small bet is often stronger than if you made a standard bet precisely for that reason. Your opponents feel like they just “know” you’re going to make a big bet later, so they fold to the small bet now.
You can do this a number of different ways. I’m going to show two now, but there are countless others. In the first hand, I had Q-J suited in the big blind at 100/200 blinds with a 25 ante. A tight player in middle position who has shown a tendency to continuation bet on multiple streets raises to 600, the button calls 600, and I close the action in the big blind by calling 400 more.
The flop is A-K-3 rainbow. I check to the middle-position player who bets 1,500 into around a 2,000 chip pot. The button folds, and I decided to call with my gut shot straight draw knowing that this player continuation bets light, and I may be able to take the pot away from him on a future street even if I miss.
The turn is another ace, and I checked to the raiser who then bet 2000 into the around 5000 chip pot. The ace is a very scary card and his turn bet was pretty weak in relation to the pot. I decided that this was a really good spot to do a minimum-raise bluff, because that would leave us both with approximately 15,000 behind after the raise with 14,000 in the pot. It would be VERY tough for him to call without an ace, knowing that the remaining 15,000 may be going in on the river. I made it 4000 (the minimum raise) and he folded. It wasn’t the additional 2000 that scared him; it was the threat of my all-in river bet that got him to fold.
That really isn’t a traditional post oak bluff, but the idea is the same. It was a small bluff into a large pot, designed to look strong when I was actually very weak. If I had done this on the river, he could have easily called with a king in his hand, knowing he wouldn’t have to face any future bets; but the looming threat of the river bet won the pot for me.
In another hand late in the tournament, Thierry van den Berg was in the big blind. An aggressive player raised to 41,000 at 8000/16,000 blinds with a 2,000 ante on the button. Thierry reraised to 190,000 from the big blind and the button raiser eventually just called. The flop was Q-Q-9 with two clubs, and Thierry bet 55,000 into the nearly 400,000 pot. Thierry had a very tight image at the table. His opponent thought for a while and eventually just called. The turn was an off-suit ten, and Thierry pushed all in for around 350,000. After lots of thought, his opponent eventually mucked his hand and Thierry tabled A♥7♥ for the stone-cold bluff.
This wasn’t really a small bet bluff, but it’s a good example of why the small bet bluff works. Thierry made his hand look very strong with the super-small bet on the flop. When his opponent just called rather than raised, Thierry smelled weakness and pushed all in on the turn, knowing that when the ten came, it would look like he was protecting his A-Q or K-Q from a draw. This time, it was the actual future big bet and not the threat that got his opponent to fold. His line looked so strong, though, that it worked on his opponent.
These are just a few non-traditional examples of using small bets on early streets to set up bluffs. The concept only works when your opponents think on a sophisticated enough level to realize that they may face future large bets, or to think they’re being trapped into big pots with small bets. When mixed in sparingly as a part of your overall game, though, betting small on early streets as a bluff can be a very powerful tool.
