Tip # 38 of 52, No more cards are coming, so all that matters is whether you have the best hand.

After the dealer puts the river card on the board, your hand is complete. At this point, you might have a big hand (such as a full house or flush), a decent hand (such as top pair or an overpair to the board), or a missed hand (such as a busted straight draw). If you feel you have the winner, you should usually bet when the action gets to you. If you are unsure whether your hand is best, you have the option of either checking and hoping for the best in a showdown or checking with the intention of calling someone else's bet.

Bluffs Rarely Succeed in Low-Limit Games

When you miss your hand, you might be tempted to take a stab at the pot by bluffing. A word of caution, however: Bluffing rarely succeeds in low-limit hold'em. With several bets in the pot, it costs you only one bet to attempt a bluff. This gives you a good price. (The pot might be laying you odds of 10-to-1 or better, meaning your bluff needs to succeed only a small percentage of the time to be a profitable play.) Nevertheless, in loose low-limit games, even 10-to-1 or better odds might not be enough to justify attempting a bluff, as someone will call you nearly every time.

A Good Bluffing Situation

One situation exists in which a bluff is more apt to be successful, however, and if you incorporate this play into your game it should increase your profits. Specifically, a good time to bluff is when you are against only one or two opponents, and a scare card* comes on the river. For example, suppose you have been calling the whole way with a flush draw. The board shows:

5-6-J-7-8

Now, any 4 or 9 makes a straight, and if you bet out with confidence when the 8 hits, your bluff has a reasonable chance of success. It won't work every time, but should succeed often enough to be a profitable play. It doesn't have to work even most of the time. It just has to work more than the pot odds indicate. For example, if the pot has five big bets and your bluff succeeds more than one-sixth of the time, you profit. Out of six times the situation comes up, say you lose one bet five times out of six, that's a loss of five bets. One time you win the pot, because your opponents fold, and that's a gain of five bets. That's exactly break-even. But if your bluff succeeds more than that (more than one time in six), you profit. Just Don't make this bluff if one of your opponents is a calling station.

Another good example of a scare card is an ace on the river. Chances are, if your opponent is holding a pocket pair, he won't like the ace, and he just might lay down his hand. Of course, if he happens to have an ace, you will get called. That's why they call it gambling, though.