Advanced Betting Strategies - The Delay Bluff

The ‘delay bluff’ is a multi-street bluff: it’s when you call on an early betting round with the intention of raising as a bluff on a later betting round. For example, your opponent bets on the flop and you call with nothing or almost nothing, planning to raise the turn (or bet if checked to).

Multi-street bluffs (bluffs involving more than one round of betting) are always risky, and the delay bluff is no exception. Here are the major factors and conditions you should keep in mind when you consider a delay bluff.

1. You should be in position and playing against a single opponent.
2. Your opponent must be aggressive, but also know how to fold. This play rests on your opponent either bluffing or betting with a marginal hand, so he must be an aggressive player. Of course, your opponent also has to be willing to fold his bluff or marginal hand as well.
3. This is a play you would generally prefer to make against good players who you play with regularly. The play is very risky (you’re putting in a lot of bets) but can add a lot of deception to your overall strategy, making it valuable, but only against players who know your style.
4. Your style of play must include slowplaying by just calling on an early round of betting and raising later. We’ll call it the delay value raise, it’s the exact same betting line as the delay bluff, but you have a strong made hand. In order for any bluff to make sense, you must sometimes take the same betting line with a made hand. In fact, you must take the betting line much more often with made hands than bluffs. Therefore, the delay value raise has to be a normal strategy for you with a big hand. Both plays must be in your repertoire for either to make sense. Again, this is because of the need for deception.
5. There must be a strong made hand that you can ‘represent’ when you bluff. Flops where a flush or a straight are possible are good candidates. When players make a hand that strong on the flop they often wait until the turn or river to raise, so your bluff is credible (assuming you might have played the necessary hand preflop). Any time you might play a specific made hand by calling the flop and raising later on, you can consider attempting a delay bluff.
6. It is better to delay bluff with a few outs than with zero outs. Try a delayed semi-bluff. But if you have more than a few outs it’s almost always better to try a regular semi-bluff, rather than a delayed one. The reason is a bit complicated, but again, it has to do with deception and having a balanced strategy. Because you would only delay value bet (call and raise later) with a very strong hand, you should only use the same betting line as a bluff with pure or near-pure bluffs.
   
   
   

   
   

7. The delay raise is more effective in no limit and pot limit games. The ability to make larger bets makes all bluff plays more effective in big bet games, but that is especially the case for multi-street bluffs. Also, it is common to find no limit Hold’em and pot limit Omaha players who make continuation bets frequently but really slow down when called. Think about how most of your opponents play AQ or AK when they miss the flop (and were in the lead preflop). If a lot of them would bet once and then shut it down if called, you should consider making some delay bluffs.