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Recently, I bluffed someone with four of a kind, bluffing I had pocket aces. My hand was 2♣ 7♠ the flop was A♣ A♥ Q♦ the turn came Q♣

My stack was $75, my opponent had $100. Blinds: 2/4 Current pot $16 I bet $50, my opponent folded. I showed my 2♣ 7♠

I then found out my oponnent had Q♥ Q♠

Afterwards, I realized that a bet that size was dangerous, as I had been playing pretty loosely before that, my question is what is a good bluff amount in relation to your stack, opponents stacks, and pot, especially if you have been playing loose?

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    Two possibilities here: (1) Your opponent is a complete moron and you got amazingly lucky. (2) This never happened. I don't care how much you "represent" aces here, you could bring out a bible and swear on your sainted mother's grave that you have aces, and not only am I calling your $50 before you finish talking, I'm raising all in. No sane human being would do otherwise.
    – Lee Daniel Crocker
    Sep 17, 2015 at 23:36
  • @LeeDanielCrocker even if I was playing a moron, the question is on safe bluffing, not the hand that I got amazingly lucky on
    – Travis
    Sep 18, 2015 at 0:24
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    This seems far fetched. It stretches the bounds of believable.
    – Chris Farmer
    Sep 18, 2015 at 0:54
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    I find this equally hard to believe. You said you were representing aces, but on the turn the pot only had $16 dollars in it, 8 of that which had to come from the pre-flop at minimum. Given that information I find it hard to believe you "represented" aces very well. If this hand has any truth to it, I doubt the person folding had Q's and was likely trying to throw you off.
    – James Wilson
    Sep 18, 2015 at 15:51
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    You were not bluffing that you had 4 of a kind. At best, you were bluffing that you had one A, and were hoping to get someone with one Q to fold. If someone held QQ, they are hoping to bust someone with just an A, so it is not possible for them to fold. Either the hand didn't happen the way you described, or the person accidentally folded QQ by clicking the wrong button.
    – TTT
    Sep 27, 2015 at 15:17

2 Answers 2

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I personally would be willing not only shove my 100$, but my 10000$, followed by my house here with QQ. It's just based on statistics on how often you'll have a QQ quads against a AA quads. (i believe i win with my 10000$, plus my house value)

As for your question, there's no such thing. Flop is scary enough to be yourself against a full house, which you're going to be called, given you're playing against a sane player.

As a rule of thumb only a big bet is a good bluff bet size. In this specific context (scary board), any kind of bet size is good one to bluff your opponent. However, your opponent could easily have an ace and call you. Aced board is pretty scary.

I personally don't like this play, betting 50$ to win $16 (4 blinds). Especially when you shown your cards. In effect, you nullified your strategy by making this move eg. you won 4 blinds and lost your ability to make similar plays in the future.

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  • My goal in showing my cards was to put the opponent on tilt.
    – Travis
    Sep 18, 2015 at 0:52
  • @Wyatt, of course, i understand that. But notice that against good players, that never tilt, you're going to be watched very closely and they'll remember without tilting ;)
    – user1165
    Sep 18, 2015 at 0:55
  • I'd consider any player who folds four of a kind Queens to not only be a bad player, but an extremely ignorant person who will tilt and forget I had bluffed them in 2 hands
    – Travis
    Sep 18, 2015 at 1:12
  • @Wyatt Did it work?
    – user1934
    Sep 24, 2015 at 21:52
  • @Michael yah, he gave me the rest of his stack within 5 minutes.
    – Travis
    Sep 25, 2015 at 2:35
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Regardless of the situation you have provided, so you can use it in more situations, it depends on the players and how the hand played. There is not one answer, every situation will be different.

Simple answer is whatever amount you think will make your opponent fold. Some opponents will see a small bet as scary and that you want to be paid off, some will be the opposite.

It depends hugely on the level of your opponent. Against weaker players betting big will often work as they'll likely (depending if they're tight) fold thinking you'll only bet like that with the nuts as that's what they would do. They'll just see the bet and won't recall how the hand played. Likewise against a thinking player, they might think along the lines of they bet big to look strong, I know that they're capable of doing this, they're loose player, so he could very well be weak, I'll call. They'll also look at what happened on every street of the hand, and remember previous hands and use that information to make their decisions.

The amount depends and differs based on your opponents level of poker and how they're thinking of the game.

With regards to your situation, you got very lucky here as anyone who understands the basics of poker and even the basics of the maths would know this situation is extremely unlikely. If you have the quad aces oh well, cooler. I worked out the maths here, take a look to see how unlikely it is/the mistake the other player made.

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