Annie Duke says successful poker is often a matter of using your bets to tell a story that leads your foe to a reasonable, yet wrong, conclusion. Here’s a story I like to tell. I call it the ‘I have a hand, no I don’t, yes I do’ story.

On a flop of 7♥-8♥-K♠, I’m holding K♦-7♣. I probably have the best hand and I want to extract some value. So in first position I tell part one of the story by making a ‘utility underbet’ – about half pot-size. This bet tells an interesting lie: it looks like it’s trying for a cheap draw, but really it’s disguising a big hand. When the turn doesn’t connect to either the straight or flush draw, I immediately check.

This is chapter two of the story, and it confirms in my foe’s mind that I’m on a draw and hoping for a free ride to the river. Let’s say I get it, and I ‘miss’ again on the river. Now my foe is emboldened to bet, maybe even to bluff, for the three parts of my story have made it clear I’m on a draw that didn’t hit. Imagine his surprise then when I raise on the river. He either folds or makes a bad call, giving me either good or great value on the hand.

In short-handed poker you must look to exploit these patterns of play, and aberrations in others’ patterns of play against which you must be wary.