The last post discussed floating the flop in detail and how to be successful with floats on multiple flops. It also talked about how you can "add outs" by representing some draws or specifically bluffing specific scare cards to create a bet frequency where you optimize your balance of bluffs to value bets and how doing so can allow you "extra outs" so that you can call even when you are drawing slim.
The sequel to the "float" is the "minibluff". While the float is a great idea, the "minibluff" is at times
better. The "minibluff" is like floating. But rather than just calling, you are minraising. Your opponent has to at least call, and probably will signal if he's best right there by raising or at least betting the turn. Assuming he just calls and THEN checks, passing up TWO chances to put in more chips, you have a bit more confidence than with a float that he is weak even though it cost you more to pull off. It should be a higher percentage play, particularly when you use sparingly and when the context of the move tells a believable story. So, you win more with your bluffs and they should succeed more often.
The reason you'd minibluff instead of float is if the flop is "semistatic" or a dynamic but without the type of draws on the board that you'd be too worried about. You might do this with a monster because you want the pot to get big enough that if a draw appears on the turn in addition to possible draws that exist now, you may want to inflate the pot such that you can shove the turn. You may also do it if opponent's bet on the flop is too small and a float would likely give him more reason to fire a second barrel. Conversely, you may also do it because you don't want to inflate the pot too much with a larger raise such that you can still get away from a ridiculous all in bet if one of a very select few number of cards hit the turn.
You also might occasionally minibluff if you have a longshot draw like a gutshot AND a backdoor draw. That way if you improve to a straightflush draw or double gutshot, or pair with gutshot or double gutshot flush draw, you might just take the free card if opponent checks. but almost always you will be following it up with a bluff on the turn and the success rate should be high enough to justify inflating the pot on the flop to win more with your bluffs.
You typically should make this type of bet if the chances the flop hit your opponent are slim, but the hands that do hit it are vulnerable anyways. The 279 flop for example particularly without 2 of the same suit is a flop that is extremely likely to have a Ten or Higher hit the turn but only a 12% chance at best for one of those cards to actually hit opponent on the turn. It is a connected enough flop where if you have a set you'd want to charge a hand like JT at least something for drawing and the bet isn't so large and it isn't likely enough that opponent has 68 or T8 or 45 to worry too much about an open ender or double gutshot draw. You are acting as if you HOPE opponent has A2,A7 or A9 or an overpair and falls in love with it enough to take the opportunity to get the money all in when in reality you are sometimes just looking for information and setting up a bluff. You probably are just facing a standard continuation bet with an opponent who doesn't play enough hands that connect with that type of flop very often at all. The float here doesn't make as much sense. Sure you could occasionally do it and try to take down the turn if an overcard to the board hits but there is more value in the miniraise against the standard weak Cbetting opponents, particularly if you have a tight enough image. This move is also how you might play a set trying to inflate the pot a little bit.
Your turn bluff need not be too large either. If pot was $600 on flop and bet was $300 and you minraise to $600 so that $1800 goes in before the turn, you might just bet $600-$800 on the turn. If opponent bet $200 in that $600 pot and you minraise to $400 so that $1400 goes in before the turn you might only bet $600 on the turn. You want a bet that screams "please give me action" because it probably is more effective than a large bet at this stage. However, if the turn card brings another connected card and/or potential flush draw, you might increase the bet to more of a standard bet of 2/3rds the pot or so.
The River is where when you DO have a monster and both the minibluff and turn bet were called, you will follow through with a very large bet. When you do NOT have a monster you need to follow the Optimal River Bluff To Value Bet Frequency method mentioned in the last post. You should somehow figure out given your hand range how often you'd behave like this and how often you'd hit the river or approximate enough to give you a good idea. And you have to make sure your monster is basically a lock against opponent's range at this point. If the bet is too small on the turn, some people may make a crying call particularly if they feel they may have outs with say A2 on the 279 board.
Not every play needs to be purely mathematical, particularly against opponents you will never see again, particularly if you have a good idea on how to exploit them without requiring this balance. If it is profitable enough to bluff don't worry that your bluffs and value bets don't balance. If it isn't, don't do it just to "create balance".
Another good type of flop to use the minibluff is on a low paired flop, particularly with connected cards like 556. If you had an overpair or 45 or A5 or 66 or A6 you'd want to make it difficult on a higher overpair to try to hit a two outer or make the ace king hands hard to hit. You might be somewhat worried about 78 or 34 or 47 or 23 or 89 or A2-A4 with backdoor flush draw and wheel draw or 67 with backdoor flush and straight draw but not worried enough to charge them a high price to draw. The story of minraising is consistent with how you might actually play monster hands in that spot or even very strong hands that you probably aren't folding, you want to get value out of the weaker hands and minraise to try to decide if you can get away from 45 or 77 or 88 if opponent shoves, but usually you're just trying to inflate the pot with a hand that is probably best right now while opponent may draw to 6 outs at best, but at worst he's drawing dead and putting in more money because it's only the minimum raise.
Now this kind of bet can be a pure bluff too or a semibluff that often times won't even be good if you hit so you don't mind being raised off of it, particularly if you have 89 or 23 for a gutshot or 34 for the idiot end of the draw. Any hand in your hand range is going to have overcards to the board and several pocket pair or an overpair. 22,33 and 44 are not only vulnerable to the overcards and current made hands but a 6 on the turn would counterfeit it and a running pair would as well so setting it up with that hand is fine. So while both you and your opponent may see a lot of value in any hand they have, they also will not like to call a large bet on the turn if they don't improve given the action you take of minraising the flop and continuing on the turn as if you've got something.
If the bluff fails, you can pretty much be done with it. But it should succeed often enough that it's actually better to minraise than to just flat call in these circumstances, or against an opponent who always Cbets and typically folds on the turn.
More importantly, if you float too often, it won't be as effective. Mixing in this move in with your floats along with some larger reraises on some flops to try to take it down there and possibly follow through on the turn will make you more dangerous and more challenging to play against.
The minibluff at it's best may even get opponent to fold for the lowest risk possible, but most likely will get opponent to make a crying call due to the odds you're offering him and because he doesn't want to make a habit of showing opponents he'll fold to a minraise, and most likely he will fold the turn.
A flop like JT7 may be a good flop to mnraise as well because you could have JT or 98 or JJ or TT or 77 but you would have to be slightly worried about KQ,QK,AQ and even 96 or 86. Still though, there are enough hands that flop hits like AJ and AT and A7 and even pocket 9's, 8's and lower that may call such a small raise and many of those may fold to a lot of turn cards. A large raise when you don't have 98 or JJ might only get hands that beat you to call. A minraise may make some sense here. It's a pretty difficult spot for say KJ to continue after the turn, AT and less will probably fold to that action on the turn except for a few stubborn opponents. AJ and QQ+ is difficult but most opponents would call. KQ may stick around and AK may get stubborn because they could have 4 or even 10 outs, and they have at least12 if they pick up a flush draw at some point.
A T76 flop or J87 type of flop would be a bit better since there's fewer hands to worry about and 45 isn't drawing to a higher straight and only J9 or J8 can outdraw you. You still can minraise either flop but you should probably miniraise to bluff much LESS often on a JT7 flop than on a T76 flop. Probably the minraise isn't the most logical and best play on the JT7 flop because it's a little bit too connected and a little bit too likely to hit opponent to where they may not fold, even with a line like this. Floating is probably not great either and reraising is difficult but perhaps makes sense against the right opponents. Playing a bit weak on these kind of flops and folding a lot is exploitable but isn't that big of a deal either.
J57 flop or Q57 is a good minibluff flop even if it's suited but stubborn opponents won't believe that story because it's a low percentage of your holdings and even AJ wouldn't necessarily play the hand that way and that's the kind of flop that you'd usually slow play. Even so, it's hard to call a bet on the turn knowing a big one could be coming on the river without at least SOME kind of hand like 88-TT or A7 or A5 or AK or AQ with a flush draw. A minibluff is slightly higher win rate than floating here, but floating may not be believed by some either because the pot will be smaller and you'll have failed to indicate strength on the flop. Weird spot because everyone plays jack high flops differently. Since I have fewer spots where I reraise large this may be a good flop to do so if I'm going to bluff. But minraise and floating aren't bad either. difficult to say what is best
Depending on preflop action there are a lot of Aj,Kj,Qj,JT,J9,J8 type of hands in opponent's range as well making it not the best spot to try to win a pot if you don't have to. Nevertheless, If I had to pick a play here knowing nothing else, the minraise would be pretty good.
Ten high flops and lower are pretty predictable and Q high flops and higher are pretty predictable. But opponents may or may not be concerned about K,Q, or A if they have JT. Other opponents might be. Some may believe floating is strength, others may think reraise on the flop is strength and others may think minraise.
9 high flops and lower with or without straights or flushdraws (but not both) are great spots for minibluffs as opponent has to be worried about a lot of overpairs, top pair ace kicker, any set and with that being said since most opponents play too many hands this is a spot where they will have to fold too often to continued pressure and so it will usually be more profitable to minibluff than to float.
Hands you should minibluff: Since you are representing extreme strength but also allowing opponent to see another card for cheap you either want a hand with no value at all or one with a very slim draw to the best hand in case opponent hits some rare other kind of draw or actually has a hand and elects to slow play since you've taken the initiative or because his hand is strong but he is afraid you may be stronger... That means you do not want a 45 with a flush draw but you want Ax with a flush draw or backdoor flush draw. You may also accept a backdoor flushdraw if it's a low card and has straight possibilities but the straight possibility has to be such that it wouldn't make a higher straight. 45s with 96 and any other card on flop isn't best since opponent could have 78 and your lower straight may not be good if opponent hits a 5 or T or opponent could have T7 or T8 or even JT and your running 78 wouldn't help.
Why a hand with no value at all? Why not a moderately strong draw and not usually a draw? Most draws should be played differently. Most draws you either want to scare away higher draws or you don't want to put any more money in where opponent won't fold and where opponent could raise you out of the hand at any time. You either want action from all very strong hands while raising the amount in the pot and building a big pot, or you want to look like you want action from all hands on the flop and building a big pot when really you're just trying to drag them a long and set up a bluff.
Even so, the action should be governed by the players first and the flop texture second and your recent history third and your actual hand should be only the 4th consideration.
Edit:
Minibluffing the turn to set up a river bluff: Since some players may think a minraise represents an attempt to buy a free card, the minraise may be more effective on the turn. It especially works if you check the flop as it represents a slowplayed hand, or nothing. But the minraise tells opponents it's probably a slowplayed hand. The minraise is often enough to deny most drawing hands the odds to draw with only one card to come, particularly if you have a set and they are drawing to a flush since the board could pair and give you quads or a full house. That doesn't mean they'll fold as they may think they have good implied odds.
When you are out of position you might tend to check low card flops more often since they favor the in position player. If opponent checks behind and you check again after another low card and opponent bets, he may be trying to pick up the pot. if you min raise and opponent just calls, this may be a good spot to follow through with a real bluff on the river to get opponent to fold his Ace King type hands and some lower and mid pocket pairs even.
When you are in position the play is far better, but you tend not to want to check low card flops very often. But say you check an ace, king, or queen high flop and opponent bets turn and you think he is likely to do so to try to pick up the pot. If you float the turn he may still follow through with medium strengthed hands and pure bluffs particularly if there is no ace on board or if a higher card comes on the river. So by showing strength here you get information. If opponent is strong and thinks you are strong he'll probably want to get the money in. If opponent is not strong he'll probably still call and be willing to give it up on the river often enough for it to be profitable to bluff.
This minibluff on the turn may also work if you floated the flop against a double barreler or have floated the flop a lot and opponents are starting to fire two bets and you have folded before to the second.
At some point in the future the minibluff on the turn after you bet the flop may work more effectively if players take the line of floating out of position and donk betting the turn.
The checkminibluff minraise is very tricky but can be more effective in representing strength. It's just akward for opponent to continue and so they may even fold the flop.
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