Many players get confused about how to play the river. This is perhaps the most difficult street to play, after all, the pot will probably already be large and the possibilities of hands formed are huge.
Players often tend to double-fire their draws in a semi-bluff, and when they miss the board, they are left wondering what to do, wondering whether or not they should fire again to try to get their opponent out of the hand.
In other cases, the player has a solid read that the opponent is weak, but lacks the courage to make the final push and call the third barrel bluff.
If you've ever found yourself in any of these situations while playing, these tips will help you get on a more solid path to performing a triple barrel bluff with incredible accuracy.
The turn brings more equity to your opponent, but the river takes it away
This is the most common situation when you want to fire the third “shot” as a bluff. Often, you will find cards on the turn that will give your opponent obvious equity, usually these cards will allow draws such as open ended straight draws and gut-shot straight draws. In this type of situation, many times your opponent will call on the turn to chase such draws with hands such as a pair + gut-shot or a pair + open ended, but will easily fold their hand at the first sign of aggression on the river when they lose this equity.
A good example would be a 9T4 board, when the turn is a 7 or an 8. Hands like 89, when they find a 7 on the turn become a pair + open ended straight draw, which will call the flop and turn, but fold to a river blank like a 2. On a turn 8, a hand 78 will also be a pair with a straight draw, JK and TJ will always call the turn and fold the river when they don't improve.
Your perceived range gets stronger, while your opponent's range gets weaker
Many cards on the river, such as overcards, will strengthen your range and weaken your opponent's. As the initial aggressor, you should have more of these cards in your hand, so turns and rivers that bring overcards to the board will make your opponent's range look weaker overall.
For example, you raise preflop with 89s, and the flop comes J42. You make a C-BET and your opponent calls. The turn comes a T, you decide to fire with your straight draw, and he calls. You then put him on a Jx. The river comes an A and you decide to fire again to make him fold Jx. The reason the A is a good card is that many hands in your semi-bluffing range would have hit this river. You could easily have KQ, AQ, AK, AJ in your hand. It would be hard for your opponent to imagine a hand as “total air” in this case, and he will probably fold your Jx most of the time.
Look for situations where your bet doesn't look like a bluff
You want to take advantage of situations where your opponent thinks you would never bluff, or at least that there are very few hands in your bluffing range. Let's say you raise from early position with 89s again, the flop comes A52 and you only have a backdoor flush draw. You C-bet and get called. The turn comes a 2 and gives you a flush draw. At this point you would be folding most of your air range, so you decide to bet again as a semi-bluff with your 89s. Your bet looks very strong and your opponent will certainly put you on an ace. Your opponent thinks for a while and calls. The river is a blank that misses your flush. You think and feel that you can represent a very strong range here. You would rarely bluff in this spot, you bet a good value of 3/4 of the pot and your opponent folds hands like AJ easily and you win a big pot.
Article translated and adapted from the original: Triple barrel bluff
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