Defending Against Bluffs

My latest poker strategy article, Defending Against Bluffs, has just been published in the July 2008 issue of 2+2 Internet Magazine. Here’s a teaser:

To discover the true cost of a fold, you have to consider your opponent’s entire range. The next step in building up a defense against is to think about your entire range. Your opponent doesn’t know that you have a weak top pair. He has to make his decisions in light of a range of hands you could hold, just as you must do against him. Ask yourself where your current holding fits into your range. Is it one of the strongest hands that you would play this way, or one of the weakest? It’s OK to get bluffed off of the weakest hands in your range. Your consolation comes when you play a stronger hand the same way, your opponent makes the same bluff, and you snap him off.

If you enjoy this, please check out my archive of my older 2+2 articles and other poker strategy writing.

Sorry for the recent silence, I haven’t been doing much of anything poker-related for the last week. I leave for Las Vegas tonight, though, so hopefully I’ll have some good stories soon.