The Grey Area Between

Value Betting and Bluffing

밸류벳과 블러핑 사이의 그레이 에리어.

It’s often tempting to tryto oversimplify complex situations by taking a binary or “all or nothing” approach. This oftenmakes problems easier to visualize and understand, and

while being able tobreak down complex situations in an effort to better understand them

is often useful, wemust be careful not to go overboard. This concept can be seen clearly

in poker whenplayers attempt to visualize bets on the flop and turn as either value bets

or bluffs.Oftentimes, especially on the flop, the best line available will be to make abet which has bothbluffing and value betting properties.

 “전부 혹은 아무것도 아닌”과 같이 복잡한 상황을 극도로 단순화 시켜서 이분법으로 보는 것은 종종 매력적인 것 같다. 이것은 문제를 시각화하고 이해하기 쉽게 만들며, 복잡한 상황을 잘 이해하기 위해 나누는 것은 자주 유용하지만, 이를 과대 해석 하지 않도록 조심해야만 한다. 이 개념은 포커에서 플레이어들이 플랍이나 턴에서 벳하는 것이 밸류벳인지 블러프인지를 보여준다. 때때로, 특히 플랍에서 플레이어가 취할 수 있는 최고의 라인은 블러프와 밸류 요소 모두를 가진 벳일 수 있다.

Here’s an example. We openwith the Ts 9s in middle position and the button calls. If the flop comes the 9d 4h 2s and we bet, are we value betting or bluffing? Notice that our opponent maycall with AK,AQ, 98s, 88, or 77, and we’ll usually win at showdown if the turnand river check through.

 예를 들어서, 우리가 Ts9s로 mp에서 오픈 했고 버튼이 콜했다. 만약 플랍이 9d 4h2s가 깔리고 우리가 벳한다면 우리는 벨류 벳하고 있는 것일까? 아님 블러프 하고 있는 것일까? 상대방이 AK, AQ, 98s, 88 or77로 콜 하리라는 것을 알고 있다 하면, 상대방이 턴과 리버에 체크 할 경우 우리는 보통 쇼다운에서 이기게 될 것이다.

Notice that thismakes the hand seem like a value bet since we are getting value from

worse hands. Yet we alsomake our opponent fold hands such as ace-jack and king-queen

which have over 24percent equity against our holding because they do poorly against

our overall bettingrange which includes many overpairs and better overcards. Thus,

making our opponentfold hands with 24 percent equity is a significant accomplishment.

This is especiallytrue when there are two streets left to act, a large amount of stack

depth, and ouropponent has position on us. In fact, if we do decide to bet our pair of

nines with a tenkicker on this flop, it’s largely because making our opponent fold hands

with two overcardsis so desirable.

 이 플랍 벳이 더 좋지 않은 핸드들에게 밸류를 받아낼 수 있을거 같기 때문에 밸류벳 처럼 보임에 주목하라. 그러나 우리는 상대방이 AJ, KQ같은 우리 핸드에 대해 24%의 에쿼티를 가진 핸드들 또한 폴드하게 만들 수도 있다, AJ, KQ같은 핸드들은 우리의 베팅레인지에 포함된 오버페어나 오버카드에 대해 에쿼티가 거의 없기 때문이다. 그러므로 상대방이 이 24%의 에쿼티를 포기하게 만드는 것은 매우 큰 성과이다. 이는 특히나 액션을 취할 스트릿이 두개 남아 있고, 딥 스택인경우, 상대방이 우리에 대해 포지션을 가진 경우에 더욱 그렇다. 사실 만약 우리가 여기서 T9s를  벳하는 주요 목적은 상대방의 2 오버카드를 폴드시키는 것에 좀더 가깝다.

Before understandingtheory well it may be tempting to think, “How is this situation

complicated? We arevalue betting since our opponent should call with worse hands as

well as protectingour hand by not letting him see a free card. Just because we want to

deny free cardsdoesn’tmake our bet less of a value bet.” Yet this would be ahuge

oversimplification.

 이론을 좀 더 잘 이해하기 전에, 다음에 대해 생각해 보자 “이 상황이 얼마나 복잡하지? 우리는 상대가 더 나쁜 핸드로도 콜을 해줄 뿐만 아니라, 프리카드를 안 줌으로서 우리 핸드를 보호하는 벳이다. 우리가 단지 공짜 카드를 주는 것을 거부 한다고 해서 우리의 벳이 벨류벳이 아닌 것은 아니다.” 그러나 이것은 매우 과도하게 단순화 한 것이다.

It’s important tounderstand that betting this flop has several important consequences.

They are:

플랍에 벳하는 것이 다음의 몇가지 중요한 결과를 가져올 수 있음을 이해하는 것은 매우 중요하다.

1. We make ouropponent’sturn range stronger.

2. We make the potbigger. And,

3. We risk gettingraised when there are still two streets left to act.

1. 우리는 상대방의 턴 레인지를 더 강하게 만든다.

2. 우리는 팟을 더 크게 만든다

3. 우리는 여전히 두 개의 스트릿이 남은 상황에서 레이즈 당할 위험이 있다.

Also, there are nowa couple of questions to consider. They are:

1. Even if we areahead on the flop, how can we keep getting value on almost any turn or

river cards?

2. Was betting theflop really a “vauebet” if we have to check the turn and now play a

big pot out ofposition against a strong range?

또한 다음의 질문들에 대해 고려해보자.

1.우리가 플랍에 앞서고 있다 하더라고 턴이나 리버에 어떻게 우리 핸드의 밸류를 유지하라 수 있을까?

2.만약 빅팟에서 턴에 OOP에서 강한 레인지를 상대로 체크해야 한다면, 플랍에서의 벳이 정말 “벨류 벳” 인가?

Notice that the handdoesn’tsimply end once we bet this flop and our opponent calls

since we will oftenhave a difficult time realizing our equity once our flop bet is called.

Therefore, claimingour flop bet is a “value bet” is at best an extremeoversimplification.

 콜당할 경우에 우리 핸드의 에쿼티를 파악하는것에 어려움을 겪게 되므로 핸드가 단순하게 우리가 플랍에 벳하고 상대방이 콜한다고 해서 끝나는 것이 아님에 주의해라.

그러므로, 플랍 벳을 “벨류 벳”이라 주장하는 것은 극도로 과도한 단순화이다.

Furthermore, ingeneral, the terms “value bet” (or “valueraise”) and “bluff” will be imperfect terms onevery street except the river. That’s because there are always

additional cards tocome on earlier streets, and weaker hands have the opportunity to

improve and outdrawstronger ones. In addition, since not all value hands and bluffs have

the same amount ofequity, some will be more likely to win at showdown than others.

 더구나, 일반적으로 “밸류 벳”(또는 “벨류 레이즈”)과 “블러프” 는 리버를 제외하고는 불완전한 용어이다. 왜냐하면 이전 스트릿에서 카드가 더 추가됨에 따라서 더 약한 핸드도 강한 핸드로 발전할 기회가 생기고 이전 스트릿의 강한 핸드에 대해 밸류를 가져올 수도 있기 때문이다. 추가로, 밸류 핸드와 블러프가 항상 같은 에쿼티를 가지는 것은 아니므로, 어떤 핸드는 다른 핸드에 비해 더 쇼다운에서 이길 가능성이 높다.

To illustrate,suppose we usually 3-bet aces and ace-king on the button against a cutoff

open. Most playerswould simply refer to these 3-bets as value raises since our opponent

will often call withdominated hands such as tens or ace-queen. Yet there is a huge

difference instrength between aces and ace-king, as the former has much more equity.