I played for about an hour tonight before bed, normally I wouldn't blog about this, but there was a particular hand that I wanted to highlight. I held K10 offsuit in the cutoff seat, there was 1 EP limper in front of me, I decided to try and steal the $5 pot with K10 as it isn't really a hand you want to play, but if you're going to you should be raising, so I made it $8 to go, and the EP limper called. The flop came down J103, an ok flop for my hand, but it still went check-check. Turn brought a harmless 5, I bet $11 into the $19 pot, and my opponent called. I put him on some sort of draw or low pocket pair at this point, so I was actually pleased that he called this. River brought a 6, a good card for me. The pot is now $41, and my opponent moves all in for $55, this is the main move in the hand I wanted to talk about in a second. I think about it for a little bit and realize the only possible hand he could have is a busted draw and he is trying to buy his way out of it. If he was slowplaying a monster he would've value bet the river or even checked trying to get me to raise, so I knew he didn't have that, he also didn't have a J, because he would likely value bet this as well on the river or just check call. Had this particular player bet something like $25-$30, I probably would've folded, because then it would've looked like he had a J, but being that his bet was so large and my read on the turn, it was an easy call, and my pair of tens took the pot down as he had a busted straight draw.
Many players make this highly costly mistake thinking a bluff needs to be a large amount to work. Against experienced players overbetting the pot makes it too easy to recognize it as a bluff, especially if the whole hand you've been calling and not taking the lead in the pot. Against experienced players this is my favorite play to use to get paid off, if I have a strong hand, i'll do what i call an overvalue bet. Meaning i'll bet something like $150 into a $100 pot with a very strong hand, to make it look like a bluff, i'll usually get paid off using this play more often than a traditional value bet against experienced players. But i'll overbet the pot against weak players as bluffs, as they usually are too afraid to put that kind of money in the pot. I just found this certain hand interesting and wanted to explain the play to some of you who may be interested on what goes on in my sick, twisted, and poker infested mind. Time for bed.

-Bakken