5 Plays to Confuse a Skilled Opponent

With the general level of skill in poker increasing – or at least the technical side of play – it makes sense to look at some creative ‘plays’ which will hopefully ask your opponent to deal with problems other than odds, starting hands, and position.

Surprising the opposition by throwing in some unusual moves is a good way to increase your chances of forcing a mistake, so here’s a few to try…

Overbetting

Also known as the river over-shove, basically it means that you bet more than the pot when you’re on the river. But why?

Well, playing no limit means there is no limit to how much of your opponent's stack you can win. If you think someone will fold to a small value bet, and an all-in shove seems a bit too much, then over-betting the potis simply another option for you.

Consider the situation when you’re pretty sure all your opponent holds is a small bluff-catching type hand.

If he has shown himself willing to call small value bets on the river, up the stakes a little. Suspicious players will invest far more than you might think just to keep your play on the straight and narrow. Hero calls are the in thing! So, over-bet your big hands and value bet-size your bluffs!

Conversely, against tighter opposition, over-bet your bluffs and value bet your big hands. These players are less likely to look up your bigger-bet bluffs, but will call smaller bets happily.

The biggest plus point of overbetting, though, is that it poses your opponent a ‘ non-standard’ play – they won’t know what to make of these bets and will generally respond weakly.

Donk-Betting

In general, a donk-bet is one where a player out of position (OOP) bets into the original raiser. So, for example, if the button raises pre-flop and the Big Blind calls, after the flop the BB will bet into the button.

This is contrary to the general ‘rule’ of poker, which says that having position is a huge advantage and when you are out of position you should defer to the original bettor/raiser. You would usually check and decide how to continue after seeing what they do – often facing a tough spot if they continuation bet (C-bet) the flop.

Of course, this article is about showing you alternative plays to the norm, and donk-betting can be a useful way to ruffle the feathers of the pre-flop raiser.

When you bet out of position is it because you have a big hand and want to get more money in the pot?

Are you trying to avoid allowing them a free card when they check behind as is often the case?

Are you just trying to wrest control of the hand away from them regardless of your cards?

Or is it an outright bluff, using the texture of the board to say, ‘your likely raising hand hasn’t hit this flop and my hand has’?

It can be any and all of these things! It’s simply an alternative way to make your opponent answer uncomfortable questions, and is especially useful against players who are overly aggressive, for example, those who continually steal your blinds. There is no need to always make a stand pre-flop with a re-raise – try the flop donk-bet instead!

Flop floating

This is another way to combat C-bets, and is surprisingly useful. It is basically a semi-bluffing play where you meet your opponent’s C-bet with a flat call, sometimes regardless of your hand, with a view to taking the pot away from them on the turn by betting or re-raising.

Many opponents will be C-betting a wide range of cards on the flop: two overcards, small pairs, suited connectors, etc. with the expectation that the C-bet will scare off anyone who has also missed the flop.

When you float the flop, and then bet out or raise, it will be very hard for them to continue with the hand unless they really do have a hand worth playing.

In addition, when you add this into your arsenal it then asks your opponent the question if he should C-bet at all, or so often in the future – what will he face later in the hand?

Four-betting cold

Modern poker is a very aggressive game at almost all levels nowadays, and if you don’t learn some kick-ass moves of your own you’re going to struggle.

4-betting cold is a play to show the rest of the table that a) you’re not going to sit around passively waiting for monster hands and b) you know fine well that they are raising light too often!

It used to be the case that if, say, player 1 bet and player 3 then 3-bet, everyone else would show the utmost respect and 4-bet only with AA, KK (and perhaps AK from a loose player). In today’s game that’s simply not a good enough strategy!

So, if you’re at a loose table and struggling to get good enough cards to play ‘old-school-style’ poker, try out the cold 4-bet with a wider range of hands. Big suited connectors or absolute rubbish should be added in to your premium hands.

This will raise the level of the game in such a way that your opponents will start to make mistakes – and if you see they have tightened up a bit because of your 4-bets, then do the same yourself for a while.

Block betting

This favorite river move of Phil Hellmuth can be a useful way to value bet fair-to-middling hands, but it is also a dangerous way to play exclusively – so you’ll have to mix this move in with a lot of others to extract value from it.

Basically, you are making a small bet on the river out of position – the reason being that you won’t want to call a large bet if you check and your opponent bets. Of course, if your opponents get wise to it – you are basically saying your hand isn’t great – they will start to raise you, so you need to then mix in some stronger hands using your block-bet, hands which you’d like to bet bigger, in order to avoid being easy pickings.

Block bets are usually in the 10-20% range of pot bet sizing – and would generally see you playing something like middle pair. Again it’s a way to attempt to keep some control of the hand, and perhaps confuse your opponent.

So, five different plays which are ‘non-standard’ and will force your opponents to ask difficult questions. Remember, if we don’t force our opponents to make mistakes we won’t make money from them – so always be on the lookout for creative new ways to pose them problems!