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Bluffing with Beggar Bets in No Limit Holdem Cash – A Primer
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Friday, February 1, 2008
By Chris Grove
PartTime Poker
A 'beggar' bet is generally a pretty small bet, relative to the size of the pot, that takes its name from the fact that the person making the bet usually appears to be begging for a call. There's no accepted standard on when a bet stops being small, but we can probably safely assign beggar bets a range of minimum bet to about 1/3rd pot.
Beggar bets are generally used by the average player for value betting or for attempting to lure an opponent into calling against a very strong hand. Because of this common use, beggar bets should also be able to be used effectively as bluffs in many games. While it's certainly not a play you want to trot out a dozen times each session, if you use it judiciously it can be an excellent addition to your cash game arsenal.
This article will provide some quick guidelines for using the beggar bet to bluff. As with any no limit cash strategy, the actual application is really context-reliant, so be sure to consider the specific nature of your style, opponents, and so on when attempting any theoretical move in actual game play. For reference, I tend to play 1-2 to 4-8 NL online, more often 6 max or shorthanded than full ring.
ADVANTAGES
The core advance of the beggar bluff is that it's very cheap. If you're only risking a quarter of the pot on your bluff, then you just don't have to be successful very often to show a profit. A second major advantage is the fact that, in several types of games and against several types of opponents, it's a very effective bluff, simply because it's a bet that's generally made when a person is fairly strong. That combination of low risk and frequent success makes the beggar bluff a strong move when smartly executed.
Beyond those core advantages, the beggar bluff also can be used to negate positional advantages and can also be used effectively as a set up play, especially in shorthanded situations. If an opponent folds to your small bluff once or twice, they're likely to assume you always bet small when strong, which is a great image to work from if you can put together a small run of cards.
DISADVATAGES
Obviously the move can't be all awesomeness and
Absolute profit, or you'd see people using it far more often than you currently do. Small bets and raises have their upside, but they also open you up to serious risks. The first is that the beggar bluff is often too affordable for your opponent, and may motivate them to call down or draw with hands that they'd fold to a more normal-sized bet. That leads us to the second major issue – if you don't end the hand with the beggar bluff, it's very hard to know where you stand on the next street. Larger bets tend to define your opponent's hand, but you have to dramatically expand their possible range if they we calling at the typical odds a beggar bluff offers (somewhere from 3-6 to 1, typically).
Other things to consider: when you make a beggar bluff bet in position or raise your opponent with a beggar bluff, you're reopening the betting, which is something you might regret if you're semi-bluffing. You can also quickly build a decent sized pot with such bets – and when you combine that with the fact that your opponent can be calling you with a wide range, future streets can end up playing very awkwardly. You'll probably be put in a lot of spots where you've built a pot with your bluff and you can find a few good reasons to fire another bluff on the next street.
PREFERRED OPPONENTS
As with any play, this one works better against some types of opponents than others. It's also worth noting that different types of opponents respond in different ways depending on how you're playing, so it's always a good idea to consider your opponent's style relative to your own, and not just how they're generally playing.
With that said, the first criteria for your preferred opponent is that they have to be smart enough to fold. Past that, you'd prefer to be making these types of moves against players who are firing off a decent amount of bets, and therefore are more likely to be betting with nothing when you decide to bluff. Against an aggressive opponent, you'd probably prefer someone who's about midway between TAG and LAG, as the loose-aggressive types will call your bet a lot more liberally, hurting your success rate. Bluffs on the turn are generally successful against such types.
A second preferred opponent type would be a tight-weak player, especially one who's put together a bit of a win already that session. A good amount of tight-weak players are willing to make continuation bets on the flop or semi-bluff in position. Flop raises or turn leads are generally good options against this type
PREFERRED SITUATIONS
I'm hesitant to recommend hyper-specific situations for the beggar bluff, as we all know that heavily prescriptive advice is a dangerous thing, so I'll offer up some general guidelines and spots to hopefully get you thinking about where the beggar bluff might fit best in your game.
Generally speaking, I think these bets have the best chance of success when the pot is medium-sized (think 5-25 BBs) and on your brickier, or drier, boards. Large pots tend to motivate people to call looser, and small pots don't allow you to pose a significant enough of a thread with your bet. As for the board, bluffing on a draw-filled board is always tough, since your opponent might be calling on a draw or be willing to call with weaker holding if they believe that you're on a draw.
Some generic spots where you might find success with the beggar bluff:
1. As a turn checkraise on a bricky board against an aggressive opponent capable of firing two continuation bets
2. On a paired board heads up against a scared opponent
3. As a checkraise on the river when a lot of draws miss
4. As a raise on the river against a blocking bet when a lot of draws get there
5. As a lead on the river when you've called a bet or two and a draw gets there
POSTSCRIPT
Hopefully this was a useful discussion of a bet that you might want to integrate into your game. Once you think about the bet a little more, you'll probably quickly come to recognize multi-street combinations that you can use this bet in, but that's a discussion best saved for another article.
