Semi-bluffing?

[Fredrik]

Just started out in 25NL. Thanks to variance, I've managed +EV , but this is a situation that happens to me a lot. Please comment on the flaws in my reasoning.

Table is semi-loose with a couple of rocks. We haven't seen many hands from Villain, but so far he has seen 50% of the flops and never shown any aggressiveness.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

saw flop|<font color="#C00000">saw showdown</font>

UTG ($8.72)
UTG+1 ($8.3)
UTG+2 ($19.25)
MP1 ($26.8)
MP2 ($26)
MP3 ($26.6)
CO ($24.45)
Hero ($24.65)
SB ($93.14)
BB ($23.5)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif. SB posts a blind of $0.1.
<font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, MP1 calls $0.25, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $1</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP1 calls $0.75.

Flop: ($2.35) 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 9/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
MP1 checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets $1</font>, MP1 calls $1.

My semi-bluff. I have two overcards, and I assume he either has the same or a PP. I play it like I have hit the jackpot (starting with A9s for example) and just try and milk him with a half-pot sized bet. He calls it though. Too weak of a bet?

Turn: ($4.35) 8/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
MP1 checks, Hero checks.

If my semi-bluff didn't work on the flop, I just like to take a free card here on an unimproved turn instead of continuing to bet. Is that wrong?

River: ($4.35) 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">MP1 bets $4</font>, Hero folds.

I don't think he has a straight or a full-house. But he might have an A or any PP higher than 9. And I don't want to pay him $4 to find out. Or he did like everyone else and slowplayed his 9 trips, hoping that I as an aggressive player would continue to bet for him. When I didn't on the Turn, he decided to bet for himself. But a potsized bet seemed a bit large for that?

Final Pot: $8.35

[fuzzbox]

Its not really semi-bluffing ... its more pure-bluffing.

If you hit your K/Q, you probably end up losing money on the hand, rather than winning.

If you want to bluff/find out where you are at - then bet stronger on the flop ... I recommend 2/2.50. If he calls that, then you are done with the hand. Because you didnt, he could conceivably have anything.

Most likely though, he has a 9, thats the common way to play a big hand - check/call, check/raise, bet.

[theredpill5]

I started a thread a while back called "playing tight tables " where we break down semi-bluffing into percentages /numbers. It isn't really in-depth but we do some number figuring. If I were going to bluff, I first of all wouldn't be raising KQo but that's me. I wouldn't bluff on a paired board. He took your bet on the flop to mean that you didn't have a 9. This is how most bad players interpret bets on paired boards. Right there, a check and a somewhat big bet on the turn would have gotten you farther in my opinion.

I don't do much semi-bluffing since I'm a winning player as it is but if I were to move up to .50/1 NL or something permanently, I would definitely add it to my game.

If I were you, I wouldn't try to bluff on a paired flop. I would try to bluff when you flop a flush draw and there is only one other player in the hand and you feel villain has top pair or something somewhat weak. I would make a 2-3x pot raise on the turn to try to take it down. Hopefully, this wouldn't be your whole stack since if you hit your flush, you can probably get paid off if he calls and it would also make the play more +EV. Also, do it against a tight player.