Selling A Bluff

We see some great plays on tv but this one really stood out to me. I thought this was a brilliantly played hand from Poker After Dark between Eli Elezra and Howard Lederer and I loved the way Eli Elezra played it. It`s the perfect example of how to sell a bluff. Eli tells a story from start to finish and Lederer falls for it.

Stacks are deep but HL has EE easily covered. (HL doubled up the first hand in this tourney, EE was allowed to rebuy)

blinds 150/300

EE raises from utg+1 to 900 with 9h 4s (Obviously EE is just trying to take the blinds here with an early position raise representing strength)

All fold to HL in BB with Js 9d, he calls

Pot is $1,950

Flop is Jd 10s 8d

both check ( EE is happy to take a free card here to see if he can catch his straight and Lederer was possibly planning a check-raise here as he has top pair and a straight draw )

Turn Ks

HL bets 1,100

EE re-raises to 2,200 (Despite everyone telling us never to min raise that`s just what EE does here. I`m guessing the raise is for several reasons. Firstly to find out wether HL really hit the king and secondly to knock him off balance if he was just taking a stab at the pot. It also sets up the bluff on the river)

HL calls

Pot $6,350

River 5s

HL checks

EE bets 5,000 (With HL having only called the re-raise on the turn and the possibility of a flush on the board it gives EE the perfect opportunity to "finish" his story so he fires out an almost potsized bet. HL spends some time thinking through the hand but as EE raised pre-flop, re-raised on the turn and fired on the river HL can`t believe his pair of jacks is good and folds)

Just a great play imo.