Desperation River Bluff

[Qcity]

Have you ever been in a siuation where you raise preflop and get a couple of callers. You miss the flop completly but so seemingly did everyone else as they check too. Guy in the big blind checks again on the turn, and this time you fire out a delayed continuation bet, hoping to take the pot there since both guys were weak. Furthermore, you need to win this pot because you're getting short on chips. One guy folds and the big blind calls.

Now the river comes with no help. You have nothing and unfortunantly you have only 3x BB left, in other words very short stacked if you lose the pot. Only way you can win is by betting, so after he checks again, displaying weakness, you bet your remaining chips all in, even though you are surely beat and he has great pot odds to call.

But guess what, he folds, you win a big pot and instead of being crippled by checking the river, you are back in the thick of things.

Its better not to get in that situation in the first place, but with blind structures being so high, it happens to the best of us. Pure bluffing is generally a pure move, but in some situations it is very important. I've won or placed highly in several tourneys where that desperation bet in the middle of the tourney worked.

Beware that most of the time this won't work, and you'll get called and be out of tourney. Just think of it like this, 25% of the time they'll fold and you'll win the pot. That is 25% of tourneys that you have a shot at, whereas with a super short stack, you have maybe a 10% shot of coming back. It probably works more than that since they were displaying a lot of weakness and you are displaying a lot of strength (preflop raise, bet on fourth and all in on river).

Thoughts?

You avoid this "desperation river bluff" situation by going all-in on the turn instead of leaving behind 3xBB for the river. However, you illustrate an interesting point that if your opponent is drawing, but a better hand that she would fold on the river after missing but call that amount on the turn, then your river bet would be correct.