herschelw;159850 wroteBoth bluffing and betting with the best hand into a dry side pot can actually make sense. First let's talk about bluffing into a dry side. let's say there's one player allin and you and another player still both have 10k chips behind roughly. The main pot is 10k chips and you have :ac:kc. The flop is :qd:8s:5h. If you think the other player in the pot(who still has chips) is likely to have a small pair and would likely be willing to fold it or if you think they likely have air it makes sense for you to bet or shove into the dry side. They may fold the best hand and you could very possibly be ahead of the player who's allin. Even if you arent ahead of the player who is allin you'll typically have outs to the best hand and doubling your stack is worth the risk.
If this is a multitable tournament with a top heavy payout structure you should be focused on winning the tournament and not moving up the payout scale.
Now if you have a hand like :6s:ah on a :3c:2s:6h flop and your opponent who still has chips behind is likely to have two face cards then this is also a spot where you should be betting into a dry side pot to keep the other player from drawing out on you. If they call then fine they paid bad odds to float you and you can play the turn based on where you ranged them and the card that fell.
To further explain why this makes sense let's discuss it on a metagame level. Most players(especially live players) think it's horrible to bet into a dry side to bluff so they will fold much much tighter to your bet and this allows you to take them off the best hand at times when you have a hand that is likely to improve often. Busting other players isnt the goal in poker. Getting all the chips is the goal.
Hey Jerry,
Thanks for joining! I gave you a custom user title. For those that don't know, herschelw is another succesful online player and one of the coaches from PokerPwnage.com.
Thanks for the insight!