bluffing?

i have a question....how do you know when to bluff and get away with it?...this has been a big challenge for me and i seem to pick the worst times lol...can't bluff someone that has a hand obviously or the lucky donkey that will call just about anything and gets lucky....any good articles or books i can read on this that helped someone here? thx

kittykatt said:

i have a question....how do you know when to bluff and get away with it?...this has been a big challenge for me and i seem to pick the worst times lol...can't bluff someone that has a hand obviously or the lucky donkey that will call just about anything and gets lucky....any good articles or books i can read on this that helped someone here? thx

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It all depends what opponent you are playing. I think it's the most important factor of bluffing. You can't bluff a calling station. These people don't care what you have, they care that they have their middle, or small pair. When i started playing cash games $0.01/0.02 i learned it the hard way. I tried to bluff and got called all the time. I was unable to get it at that time, Thinking to myself, how come this guy called my reraise with Ks7h on the 8d7d5s9h board?? So if you want to bluff someone they better be a tight player or the type who thinks about the board and how dangerous it looks(did the straight/flush come)? How many times i got called by friends with A high on flush or straight boards, and i always thought to myself , WHAT AN IDIOT THIS GUY IS!!!! He didn't think i could possibly hit a straight or a flush??? It's because these players don't really care to put anyone on a hand so they dont think the board is dangerous to them enough to fold. They still hope to hit their A on the river with AK... lol those players you cant bluff... So remember, bluffing works well against tight and thinking players.. But also, dont bluff just because, your previous actions preflop , flop and turn must match the hand you are trying to represent by bluffing... good luck

kittykatt said:

i have a question....how do you know when to bluff and get away with it?...this has been a big challenge for me and i seem to pick the worst times lol...can't bluff someone that has a hand obviously or the lucky donkey that will call just about anything and gets lucky....any good articles or books i can read on this that helped someone here? thx

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It depends the level you play at.

You cannot bluff soeone who plays his cards with little regard for what you have.

So at small stakes.. dont bluff all that often. C-bet flops you havent hit.. but thats about it.

Oooh, you should never bluff! It's always best to be an upstanding and honest citizen. Bluffing is lying!

Okay, really . . .

Watch your opponents, do they check a lot, do they call a lot, do they fold to small raises, do they fold to big raises? When they show, did their cards tend to match the bets they made or called?

Occasionally, I also have to bluff because my stack requires it. Folding leads to not enough left and pushing just might keep me in the game. (But this isn't the fun kind of bluffing.)

I think a good general rule of bluffing is to know your opponents and more importantly how your opponents view you. If your table image is viewed as a rock for example, you can get away with bluffing more often than if your image was one of that of a loose gambler. Conversely, if someone at your table is playing as a rock you can often successfully bluff against them more often than against someone playing loose and aggressive.

you must make you play from preflop to river if you get that far, believable to the villian that you could hold such a hand that your buffing.

You also need to be aware of how you played other such hands and then duplicate it when your bluffing so no one can really tell the difference.

Never Bluff into two or more people unless you've got good reads and position.

Watch the flop for bluffable situations i.e

Flop all the same suit. (With few villians)
Flop with one high card and two low ( K 7 3 )

These are bluff and run situations. If you get called get out. But you should win more of your fair share of pots

-Make the story add up.
-Throw "tester" bets out there.(helps you put them on hand, reraise=strength, call might be looking for his draw to hit)
-Look ahead, down all streets... whats going to happen with bets etc. and is it worth it?
-Dont bluff big stacks(depending, but still dangerouse) Look for tag and pag to bluff.
-Watch how people to your left and right play(those are going to be the people who steal from you, and that you steal from them) Then expand to more and more people
-and once again... make story add up. (ex. dont call someones bets because u have flush draw, then when it doesnt hit on river you push allin hoping to "bluff" him.) have seen draws try to bluff like that so many times.

gl and hopefully this helps... people are more then welcome to correct me if i am wrong. no pro here

if two of three are true
1.you have position
2.you have outs
3.your opponant has shown weakness
todd brunson said: a bluff is somthing we try to push sheep off of

Bluff the player. I usually only do it when I sense weakness and I NEVER do it with something with absolutely no outs. The semi-bluff is always a good place to start.