Two successful semibluffs
 

I rarely semibluff, but these two situations seemed ideal.

I had just sat down, but had about 20 hands on the EP raiser, 15/15/.5/WTSD, nothing on the button.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 raises</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, Button calls, Hero calls, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>.

Flop: (7 SB) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 bets</font>, Button calls, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, UTG+2 calls, Button calls.

Turn: (6.50 BB) 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, UTG+2 calls, Button folds.

River: (8.50 BB) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, UTG+2 folds.

Final Pot: 9.50 BB


Villian is 30/15/1/0 also over about 20 hands

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. MP2 posts a blind of $2. CO posts a blind of $2.
<font color="#CC3333">UTG raises</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, Hero calls, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, CO (poster) calls, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>.

Flop: (8.50 SB) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">UTG bets</font>, Hero calls, CO folds.

Turn: (5.25 BB) 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">UTG bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, UTG folds.

Final Pot: 8.25 BB

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

I'm not betting that river in hand 1, it's wasted money. If you think he's tricky enough to steal the pot with his busted draw, c/c. Otherwise he'll check through hands you're beating but won't call a bet. I don't like that preflop semi-coldcall either in hand 1. Once the button calls the initial flop bet, I don't see much equity in the checkraise, your T overs are dirty, your A overs are probably dirty, and of your 8 straight outs 2 are possibly dirty as well, and you're not drawing superstrong to a one-card anyway.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

Hand 1: Fold preflop. Betting the river is very important because you are still behind AK and AQ.

Hand 2: Fold preflop. Fold flop. I guess the turn semibluff raise is good.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1: Fold preflop. Betting the river is very important because you are still behind AK and AQ.

Hand 2: Fold preflop. Fold flop. I guess the turn semibluff raise is good.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys are all tight in the wrong places.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not betting that river in hand 1, it's wasted money

[/ QUOTE ]

No, once you get there like the OP did, you have to bet the river to get the villain to fold AK/AQ/AJ.

Either way, fold preflop on both.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1: Fold preflop. Betting the river is very important because you are still behind AK and AQ.

Hand 2: Fold preflop. Fold flop. I guess the turn semibluff raise is good.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys are all tight in the wrong places.

[/ QUOTE ]

no.

he's right on.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

His reads are awfully premature, but I can't imagine AQ or AK calling that turn bet on a two-flush 3 to a straight board that paired with a smallish pot.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

[ QUOTE ]
His reads are awfully premature, but I can't imagine AQ or AK calling that turn bet on a two-flush 3 to a straight board that paired with a smallish pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

They're doing it all the time.

Edit: Even if you think they're not calling there very often, betting the river is still the best option. You're not gonna to catch a bluff from KQ/KJ often enough to make check-calling right. The only time the villain will bet the river is when he was playing weakly with an overpair. You have to give him a chance to fold cause if you check the river you lose.

Re: Two successful semibluffs
 

I fold both of these preflop.

Thoughts
 

These hands are interesting because I knew the general consensus would be "fold pf" with a few people agreeing the postflop play was right, others not. When I've sat for 20 hands and seen someone raise every hand they've entered with, and not go to showown once, with minimal aggression, that means several things. He's raising too many marginal hands PF, and not getting any value postflop, either by checking down or folding. I'm not giving up A10 against this player, you can do what you want. The flop play should then seem pretty obvious.

In the second case, two people had posted, and in almost any 2/4 game I've played, someone willing to post where those two did and not wait for the blinds, they're not going to be folding for one bet when a sizable pot is brewing. My implied odds are very good here, and I have position on the raiser. Do what you want, I think this is boringly standard. (EDIT: er, for some reason, I thought the button was a poster, but he simply had seen 80% of the last 20 hands, giggle. Can't imagine what he folded there. Also the blinds were pretty loose, also strange that they both folded)

In an earlier post today, everyone was agreeing that pocket nines were a good hand to 3bet isolate a tight utg raiser. Now that is a clearly wrong play. These plays are marginal PF, but not clearly bad against the given opponents. They are also the perfect opponents to run semibluffs on, since they don't go to showdown without the goods, and are not aggressive. Learn a thing or two, and take a moment to think about these things, before spouting off what the herd seems to think at the moment.