Deception is a powerful weapon in Texas Hold’em. If you’re able to trick and deceive your opponents into making errors, you will be tougher to read and put your foes on the backfoot. In the modern era of online poker where everyone is studying harder than ever, implementing GTO strategy and whatnot it’s important to have some tricky moves in your arsenal. In this article we will explore three to use.
The Float
A common theme among winning players is to have a high c-bet frequency. They know that weaker opponents are not counteracting this strategy sufficiently. So, in an effort to exploit constant c-bettors we can employ the float. The poker float is flat calling a flop continuation bet with the sole intention of taking it away later. A float has to be done with a weak hand, otherwise it’s just calling down with showdown value. By flat calling the flop bet, you have the opportunity to bet and win on a later street – particularly if they check the turn or river to you. It’s a powerful weapon to have and use as it will help your poker win rate.
Click Back Raise
Another tricky post-flop move to make is the min re-raise. This move is unorthodox and looks awkward but works surprisingly well online. Regulars are never sure what to make of the click back raise as it looks like it’s inviting action. The best boards to do this on are dry and disconnected flops. It is less likely that your opponent will have a hand that can continue and if they call, they almost certainly have top pair type hand and you can access whether it’s worth continuing your bluff.
Donk Lead
Finally we come to the play that is frequently criticised but actually valuable – the donk bet. This is where you bet into the pre-flop raiser from out of position. It’s one of them moves that looks strange but again it removes the impetus and aggression from our aggressive opponents. It makes them have to bet more if they want to bluff us out than a normal c-bet would. The beauty in this move is that you can interchange between doing this with weak to strong hands thereby removing any predictability in your play. Sure, the donk lead won’t work at times but it’s one of them moves that gets opponents on tilt and makes them scratch their head – something that works in your favour.