Which hands are the best 4-bet bluffs?

Suited wheel aces: A5s and A4s first, then A3s and A2s. They remove combos of AA and AK from the range that continues against a 4-bet, and when the 4-bet gets called they still make nut flushes and wheel straights. Suited broadways like KQs look stronger but block the hands that were going to fold anyway.

Why is A5s a better 4-bet bluff than KQs?

The ace in A5s cuts AA from six combinations to three and AK from sixteen to twelve, which are the two holdings that never fold to a 4-bet. KQs blocks KK and QQ but also removes KQs and KJs from your opponent's 3-betting bluffs, making them fold less often. Blocking folds is worthless.

How often does a 4-bet bluff need to work?

It depends on your sizing. A typical in-position 4-bet to 24bb over an 11bb 3-bet risks about 21.5bb to win 14bb, so it needs a fold roughly 60% of the time. Larger 4-bets need to work more often and therefore support fewer bluffs.

Should you call a 5-bet with A5s?

At 100bb with standard sizings, no. The 5-betting range is dominated by AA, KK and AK, and A5s is a clear underdog to all of them. Only consider it when your 4-bet was small, the 5-bet is barely larger, and the pot is laying you an unusual price.

Can you 4-bet bluff against a tight player?

Rarely. If someone only 3-bets QQ+ and AK, their entire range continues against a 4-bet and there is nothing to fold out. Save the bluffs for opponents whose 3-betting range is mostly hands that cannot stand a raise.

4-Bet Bluffing: Which Hands to Choose and Why

The best 4-bet bluffs are suited wheel aces: A5s and A4s first, then A3s and A2s. They remove combos of AA and AK from the range that continues against your raise, they make nut flushes and wheel straights on the occasions you get called, and they fold to a 5-bet without costing you a thought. Hands that look stronger — KQs, AQo, JTs — are usually worse in this exact spot, and the reason is blockers.

What a 4-bet bluff is actually doing

A 4-bet is the second re-raise before the flop: someone opens, someone 3-bets, and you raise again. If the sequence is not yet automatic, start with what a 4-bet is and come back.

A 4-bet bluff is one you intend to fold if the 3-bettor comes over the top. That intention is the entire design brief. You are not trying to win a big pot with the hand, you are trying to win the 12 to 15 big blinds already sitting in the middle, before a flop appears.

So the question is not which hands play well in a 4-bet pot. It is which hands make a fold more likely, and cost the least when it does not come.

Ace blockers do the heavy lifting

Against a competent opponent, the range that continues against a 4-bet is small: QQ+ and AK, give or take a JJ or AQs depending on stack depth and position. Everything else folds. That is 34 combinations, and your job is to delete as many of them as you can.

Holding an ace cuts AA from six combinations to three and AK from sixteen to twelve. Holding a king does the same to KK and AK. Holding neither does nothing at all. This is arithmetic, not a read — the cards in your hand cannot also be in theirs, and the mechanism behind it is covered in how blockers work.

Your hand	AA	KK	QQ	AK	Combos left
76s	6	6	6	16	34
A5s	3	6	6	12	27
K5s	6	3	6	12	27
KQs	6	3	3	12	24

KQs removes the most raw combinations, and it is still the worst bluff on that table. Two things explain why.

Blocking a fold is worthless. KQs also removes KQs, KJs and QJs from your opponent's 3-betting bluffs — the hands that were folding to your 4-bet anyway. Every combo you delete from their folding range makes them fold less often, which is the opposite of what you paid for.

Aces block the hands that never fold. AA and AK come back at you regardless of sizing. QQ and KK sometimes flat, sometimes fold to a large 4-bet from a tight seat. Removing the immovable part of a range is worth more than removing the flexible part.

A 4-bet bluff should block the hands that continue, not the hands that fold.

Why the wheel aces beat the rest

Every suited ace blocks identically. A5s and A2s remove the same AA and AK combinations, so the tiebreak is what happens after a call.

A5s makes a wheel straight, a nut flush and an occasional winning pair of fives. Against a big pair you hold roughly a third of the equity — behind, but a long way from dead, and holding the nut flush draw every time your suit arrives. A2s makes the same nut flush with a far worse straight, so it sits a tier below.

The suited part is not decoration. A5o blocks the same combinations, but with no flush behind it the hand is a pure fold on almost every flop. Keep offsuit aces for opponents who 3-bet so often that you run out of proper bluffs.

Hand	What it blocks	When called	Verdict
A5s, A4s	AA, AK	Nut flush plus wheel straight	First choice
A3s, A2s	AA, AK	Nut flush, weak straight	Solid second tier
AQo, AJo	AA, AK, QQ	Dominated by AK	Only against wide 3-bettors
KQs, KJs	KK, QQ	Plays well, blocks folds	Prefer calling the 3-bet
76s, 65s	Nothing	Good postflop	Prefer calling the 3-bet

Sizing decides how many bluffs you need

Your 4-bet size sets the price of the bluff, and that price sets how many bluffs your range can carry.

Say the BTN opens to 2.5bb, the BB 3-bets to 11bb, and the BTN 4-bets to 24bb. There is 14bb in the middle before the raise, and the BTN is adding 21.5bb to win it. That bluff needs a fold about 60% of the time to break even: bet divided by bet plus pot.

Larger 4-bets need to work more often, so they support fewer bluffs. Smaller ones support more. In position, 2.2 to 2.5 times the 3-bet is standard; out of position, closer to 3 times, because inflating a pot you must act first in is how stacks vanish.

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Position changes the list

In position against a blind 3-bet you can bluff widest. You realise more of your equity when called, your sizing can be small, and the 3-bettor's range is at its loosest. All four suited wheel aces are live, and A5o creeps in against opponents who 3-bet constantly.

Out of position — you opened from the SB or an early seat and the BTN 3-bet — tighten the list and lean on a polarized range: strong value, ace-blocker bluffs, nothing in between. Middling hands that felt like marginal 4-bets are better as calls or folds.

The other half of this is your own 3-betting. The ranges you attack with determine the ranges that attack you, and when to 3-bet preflop sets the frequencies your 4-betting range has to answer.

When the 5-bet comes back

Fold. At 100bb a 5-bet is close to all-in, and A5s is a clear underdog to every hand in a typical 5-betting range. The nut-flush blocker feels like a reason to continue. It is not.

Two exceptions: a small 4-bet met by a barely larger 5-bet can lay you a price worth taking, and at 200bb, where 5-bet ranges widen and there is room to play after the flop, the maths shifts.

Otherwise the 24bb is gone, and that is fine — it is the advertised cost of a play that needs to work six times in ten. Calling off on top of a failed bluff is how a small leak turns into a large one.

Adjusting to the table

Against a nit who only 3-bets QQ+ and AK: no bluffs at all. Their whole range continues, so there is nothing to fold out. Fold your open and move on.
Against someone 3-betting 12% or more: bluff more and stretch the list into A5o and KQs. Most of their range cannot stand a raise.
Against a player who never 5-bet bluffs: fold every bluff to every 5-bet, instantly, permanently.
Against a station who calls 4-bets with JJ and AQ: cut the bluffs and 4-bet QQ+ and AK for value instead. Bluffing someone who does not fold is not a strategy.

Building the habit

Three things turn this into a reflex.

Count the combinations before you raise. Ask what your opponent continues with and which of those combos your two cards remove. If the answer is none, you have picked the wrong hand.
Check what you opened with. The solver preflop opening ranges for each seat decide which suited aces are even in your range by the time a 3-bet arrives — you cannot 4-bet A4s from UTG if you never opened it.
Track the 5-bets you face. Rarely seeing one means your opponents are folding and you can bluff more. A steady stream means you are bluffing into players who will not co-operate.

The whole play compresses into one sentence: raise with the hands your opponent needs, fold them when the raise fails, and never confuse a hand that blocks folds with a hand that blocks calls.