Today features the second installment of our featured article submitted by our friends at Gambling-Win.

A great poker player must have many weapons in his arsenal. Online poker is a complicated game since itÂ’s difficult to read your opponents. Therefore you must use multiple tactics to be able to win. The semi-bluff is a move that many players learn early in their career but not all are able to use correctly. Especially online poker is full of people that frequently semi-bluffs which is even more true for shorthanded games.

A player makes a semi-bluff when he makes a bet with a hand that has little value at the moment, but has the potential to improve to the best hand. For example, you are dealt Qh Th and the flop is Ah Kc 6h. An opponent who bet before the flop bets out again. This is a good time for a semi-bluff. If you re-raise, a pre-flop opponent who may have bet with
a pocket pair will be tempted to lay down his hand, as any pocket pair below kings is now beaten by any opponent holding an ace or a king. Furthermore, you may get your opponent to lay down a hand with a king in it, fearing that you have flopped an ace. If your opponent calls your raise, you have many ways to win the hand. Even though you have nothing now, if a heart or a jack comes you will have a dominating hand, and your opponent, who has now committed a lot of chips to the pot, will be compelled to call further bets from you. If an unhelpful card comes on the turn, you can still bet and put even more pressure on your opponent. It is risky, but you can even put in another bet if you miss the river, in the hopes that your opponent believed he was beat, but hoped to improve and failed to do so.

The great thing about the semi-bluff is that it offers you additional ways to win a hand. You can win without the best hand by forcing your opponent to fold, or you can hit one of your many outs and win a big pot by catching a superior hand to your opponent's. Semi-bluffs are far more effective in no limit or pot limit Holdem games when you can bet big to put an incredible amount of pressure on your opponents to fold. It is not quite as effective in a limit game when opponents have a fixed amount they can lose if you are not bluffing. Still, a well timed semi-bluff in a limit game can be effective.

A semi-bluff can be especially powerful when you move all-in. What is nice about this move is that your opponent may be forced to fold not only a better hand, but a better draw. For example, you are in the big blind of a no limit game with blinds of $5/$10. An opponent makes it $20 to go and you call with Jc 9c . The flop is As 3c 4c. You bet the size
of the pot, $45 and your opponent calls. The turn is the 8h. You move all in for $150 more. Your opponent is now likely to lay down a hand as big as KK or even A 9. Furthermore, if your opponent has a hand like Kc Tc, drawing at the same flush as you but a bigger one, it will be mathematically incorrect for him to call. You will now win a big pot with the worse hand and the worse draw. Such is the power of the semi-bluff!

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