Bluff Raising Out of the Big Blind in No Limit

[pzhon]

I liked the types of arguments made in this article. I hope the book has more of this type of analysis.

A missing consideration seems to be the extent to which your hand blocks your opponents from having a good hand, in particular, aces. The article suggests bluff-raising with trash like Q2o. However, I believe the difference between the value of checking with Q2o and A2o is minimal, but holding an ace cuts the number of possible AA hands from 6 to 3. That decreases the number of limp-reraises you will face when you raise. It's like holding the ace of a suit with 3 on the board; you may have a little more showdown value, but you might be better off bluffing with the ace because you block your opponent from having the nut flush, making it much more likely that your opponent is afraid of the flush.

Of course, it may be more important that the conditions assumed are very rare, that there are no live ones at the table, and that raises from the big blind are either reraised or win the pot.