I know a guy who opened a local restaurant in my section of Boston. The week he opened he took out expensive full-page ads in the major daily papers in the region. He bought television commercials on all the major stations during prime time. He even went so far as to hire a plane to trail a banner with the name of his restaurant during a New England Patriots game.
Within six months the poor guy was out of business. His ads were very popular but he blew his entire budget on them and didn't make the money back in sales quickly enough to satisfy his creditors. Sad story. The food was pretty good too. He probably would be in business today if he was more selective and targeted with his advertising. The folks who ended up becoming his best patrons were local customers-folks right from the neighborhood. For one-tenth the cost of the daily newspaper ads he bought he could have blanketed the smaller weekly local newspapers and small radio stations. Instead, he wasted tens of thousands of dollars on a very pricey and unnecessary campaign. He went broke because of it.
There's a stud poker lesson here as well. Some poker writers, with their roots in draw poker, advise that it's good to get caught bluffing a few times early in a session as advertising. Their theory being that this will serve to get you calls when you are loaded later on.
This may be fine advice in draw. Getting caught bluffing is a relatively cheap ad in a form of poker with only two betting rounds. But in stud, where there are five betting rounds, and three of them double bets, the cost of this type of advertising is too dear. There are cheaper ways to advertise for stud players. Show that you bluff not by bluffing until you're caught on the river, as you would do in draw-and to a lesser degree in hold'em with only four betting rounds. Instead, bluff on third street and then quickly show weakness on fourth by checking. Here's an example:
You (9c 7s) As
She (x x ) 2s
The 2s is the bring in. You raise after everyone folds. This is a bluff-an attempt at an ante steal. If you win the antes and bringin that's great. But what if the deuce calls you? An expensive ad, costing eight small bets, would be to continue to push the bluff until you're called on the river. The cheaper ad is to check fourth and, if there's a bet, fold.
The cheaper ad only costs you one small bet. True, you have no chance of winning the hand this way. But that's okay. Focus on your mission. You're looking for a cheap and effective ad- something that shows your opponents that you sometimes bluff a high card on third. Do it a couple of times in quick succession if you must to drive the point home. Even if you do it four times in a row, it's still half the price of betting your bluff and getting caught on the river.
The ad will pay dividends when you get the call on your bet when you have the pair of aces on third and you raise. The idea is simple. Betting your bluff until the river and then getting caught is very expensive in stud. You can take out much cheaper ads by conceding or showing weakness after you have shown strength on an early street. This won't help your strong, tight aggressive image at the table, of course. Folks will start to disrespect your bets and raises, calling you down more frequently than they might otherwise. But that's exactly what you want sometimes, isn't it?
