As you play poker in ICE Casino online, you cannot help but wonder, do legendary players bluff their way into winning? Yes, they do, and below are some of the most memorable bluffs of all time.
This bluff is what many people call the Bluff of the Century. This happened back in 2003 in a WSOP tournament. In this event, Chris has a K spade -7 heart combo on the turn, while Sammy has a Q spade - 9 heart card. The total pot was at $210,000.
The flop is 9 spades, 2 diamonds, and 6 spades. As you can see, Chris has three spades, and Sammy has three spades, but he also has a pair of nines. At the turn, the card is 8 spades. So now, they have four spades each but no solid hand. At this point, the total pot is $510,000. The two players kept raising until the pot hit $1,810,000. The last card is shown, and it is a 3 of hearts.
Chris has nothing. Yet, he goes all in. He now has no chips, and the total pot is $5,300,000. Sammy Farha, on the other hand, still has $2,840,000 as chips. What he has is a pair of nines. Farha folds, and Chris wins.
This bluff happened at the 2005 Monte Carlo Millions. Only Phil and Paul are at the table. Below are the cards:
The flop is 7 clubs, jack clubs, and jack hearts. Both of them have nothing at this point. The one thing that happened was that both of the players kept raising and raising. The pot is now at $966,000. Despite having nothing, Phil says he is all in, so the pot is now $1,547,000. Paul folded his card and lost. In this game, the last two cards were never shown, but it would have been an interesting showdown if Paul had called on the bluff.
It is Phil Ivey again, and this time, he is battling Brad Booth. Before this bluff, there were still three of them. The other player was Williams.
Here are their cards:
Williams folded when the two players raised and called. The flop comes in. The cards are 3 of diamonds, 7 of spades, and 6 of diamonds. At this point, only Ivey has a decent hand, which is a pair of kings. Booth, however, only needs to draw a 5 to make a straight.
Ivey has raised $23,000, and Booth said he is all in. This shocks everyone watching, knowing that Ivey has a statistical winning percentage of 79% while Booth only has 20%. Booth’s all-in is equivalent to $300,000 in cold cash. Ivey takes the time to think, and after a few minutes, decides to fold.
In this round, two players are left to fight over a pot of $126,000. Here are the hands:
The flop is 3 of spades, 8 of clubs, and 7 of hearts. The turn is ace of clubs, which gives Esfandiari a trio. Now, he has a 91% chance of winning, while Brunson has a 9% probability.
The only chance for Brunson to win is to draw a 10, which will give him a straight. The dealer lays the last card, which is a 4 of spades. As you can see here, Brunson has nothing. Esfandiari, at this point, looks like he wants to laugh. Instead of folding, Brunson raises the bet by $110,000. Esfandiari, of course, raises the bet to a quarter million dollars. Brunson folded and lost.
Well, it depends. If used the right way, you can bluff your way to a win. To use it effectively, follow the tips below.
Bluffing in itself is a skill, and you must hone that skill to succeed in it. Otherwise, it is generally not recommended to bluff against strong opponents.
Poker bluffs are great, but only if executed the right way. As a player, one should be cautious not to overdo it, as other opponents can tell if one is bluffing. Besides, it is the worst thing you can do because you do not know if the person you are bluffing has a good hand or not.