Bluffing into dry sidepots...when dumb people get dumber

[stussy2k]

i don't get it. i would push with q9 suited if i was low stacked.

[Zybomb]

hes talking about the side pot , where the guy bet with A10 (ace high) into an empty side pot... he now eliminates the chance to knock a player out who has a pair bc all this guy has is A high

[stussy2k]

ohhh. Yea, people really don't get that winning tiny pots isn't important compared to checking down and knocking someone out.

[Zybomb]

or in this case winning a pot of zero chips!

[ChipFish]

I disagree.
There are definitely times to "bluff" into a "dry" sidepot.

Think about the logic behind it before flaming.

[Zybomb]

they are few and far between, but there are times -- actually I brought this point up fairly recently in another thread -- I'll paste it here for others to discuss

"For example blinds are 100/200 average stack is 5000, you have 6000 and Player As all in is 1800 (not unreasonable 9x BB means almost any raise is a push). You call with AKs as does another player with ??. There is now 27 BBs (5400 chips) in this pot, you figure your all in opponent to have 2 big cards (obviously not as big as yours), however you feel that your other opponent who called this all in may have a mid PP. A bet may get your opponent who isnt all in to fold a PP below the board (bc *obviously* he must be beat if you bet), and then have you winning the showdown with the all in player with a high card (or if you hit on a later street)

While taking this risk of not eliminating the player, you also take a chance of getting the 3rd opponent with a better hand out and giving you a 5400 pot, almost doubling your stack and making you amoungst the chip leaders now."


More times then not however it is foolish. especially when on the bubble

In the instance that Defendant mentioned, this was definately NOT one of those times that it was smart (although it wound up that it didnt matter)

[Penguinfan]

If you bluff into a dry side pot you have probably already made a mistake somewhere in the hand, or you have absolulte certainty that you have exactly second best hand of the three and you are risking chips without the possiblitly to win anything.

Daniel Negreanu wrote an excellent article about this a while back. He's a pretty good authority on the subject and I am pretty sure the article ended with something about you deserving a chair broken over your head if you do it.

I still think you are in a hopeless spot and only getting called if you are beat, on top of that it probably doesn't do you much good because the main pot won't be yours anyway.