Online Tell Or Clever Use of Time Bank To Initiate A Bluff

I happened to catch Pulfunctions rail thread when he was on a final table on Full Tilt the other night, as well as he played there was one thing which stuck in my mind.

It was a particular hand where a preflop raise had been flat called with one player left to act, the player left to act went into the Tank for quite a while and then re-raised, I forget the susequent action but the re-raiser showed KK and took the pot.

A few hands later a similar situation where the same player Tanked before making a 3bet preflop and took the pot down uncontested.

My initial thoughts were that having just shown a KK hand after going into the Tank preflop was this second play a clever bluff or a valid 3bet with a premium hand.

Personally either way I thought it was quite a clever line to take given that he/she had shown down a monster in the same situation before.

As with all ponderables I never found out as the pot was again taken down by this move.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

timebank/raise is almost always a huge hand in my experience. it depends on the player and the board, but that's what i've found.

It was the second time in a quick space of time that just got me thinking if the player was using the fact that he had done the same with the first hand and shown KK that he could try the same as a bluff. Given his image.

When a player shows a bluff, that usually indicates they want to bluff more and assume that everyone at the table will think that the player's plan is to tighten up now that he has shown it!

When a player shows a big hand, they are generally looking to get respect from their opponents because they are often the type of person who wants to play a more honest brand of poker - they want their raises to be interpreted as strength because they generally play the value of their hand and want their table-mates to play the value of their hands back at them, hence giving them easier decisions.

I'd say its more likely that it was a weakish hand the 2nd time. Maybe like a 44 or a A7, I think it is quite possible that they had picked up another good hand, it just seems more likely like they were blatantly trying to exploit a tell that they gave away on purpose.

-----Added 17 Jun 2009 at 11:12:48-----

I disagree with what LAPPIN said above me, especially at this level of buy in, and particularly in this specific situation, where someone pulled the exact same play in the span of a few hands.