Did I bet too much in trying too make my bluff?

blkmoney12

blkmoney12

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I was playing in the in my pub league tournament on Sunday. the blinds were 50-100 i was in the small blind with 9-8 suited spades cut off called and i was on the button and i called sb and big blind calls. the flop goe 3-5-6 with two hearts with 400 in the pots sb bets 150 bb folds and cut off folds i decided too call. The turn came the 2 of hearts sb checks i made tried too make a bluff bet with 700 in the pot. I made a turn bet of 675. THe sb thinks for awhile and decides too call. on the river comes the jacke of clube sb checks again. I decided too bet too take the pot from the sb. With 2050 in the pot I bet out 1775 sb goes in the take for about 5min and he decided too call sb had 7-4 off and my bluff failed. Should i not have bet that big on the turn or the river or should i have bet less.
 
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limakpl

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I don't know if i'm right but I think it is good to adjust your bluff sizes to the oppoenets taking into consideration yours and their image and STACK SIZES. If you have been doing that big value bets and went to showdown couple of times, than your bluffs will get more respect. Also if he has still plenty of chips left he is likely to call you with two pair or straight like in this example.

This bluff has good chances if your oppoent is a tight player and showed history of folding to a possible flush on the board. Against less skilled players and calling stations I don't think this bluff had any chance from the start.
 
Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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bluffing is 50% art, and 50% science and takes quite a bit of practice and focus to master.

#1 most important question is whether or not your villain is capable of folding. some players just won't let go of anything. either they are suspicious that everyone is bluffing them; or they just aren't thinking on a deep enough level to even consider what YOUR bets might mean about your hand strength. either way; if you are facing one of these guys you just never bluff. period. don't bluff a calling station.

#2 This is the "art" portion of bluffing. you are telling a story, and your story must make sense. You can't just throw a bunch of money at the pot and think "I'm bluffing" and then hope it works. So, to tell that story you must imagine a hand that you want the villain to believe you have....then pretend those are your actual 2 cards and play the hand the exact way you would play it if you really had it. So, if you really turned a flush would you bet the pot on the turn and the river? Maybe you would, I don't know. But I would normally bet something like 50-60% of the pot on the turn and 40-50% on the river.

#3 Is your opponent capable of sniffing out a bluff? Is he capable of hero calling? some players are easy to bluff because they just play their own hand strength and they think things like "2nd pair isn't good enough to put my whole stack in with" or they think things like "I know he's bluffing, but I just can't call with bottom pair". These types of players you should bluff relentlessly. Other players are the opposite and are notoriously good at picking off or even inducing bluffs. You should probably not try to bluff these guys even IF you think you are telling the perfect story about your hand.

And finally...there is an old saying about bluffing. If you never get caught bluffing, you don't bluff enough. If you frequently get caught bluffing, you bluff too much. Getting caught sometimes is part of the game...and it's good advertising for future action when you want it.
 
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Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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and now, if you'll allow I'll tell a story.

The details do matter, but I don't feel like getting into it...so just suffice it to say that I had AK. We got to the river and all the draws missed. But I had also missed everything and I just had Ace high. Villain goes all in on the river for like 2.5x the size of the pot. He has me covered. I tank and then I realize that there is no value hand that would ever play it this way. he is just trying to scare me off the pot by putting my tourney life at risk. And possibly because I'm a girl (this happens to me somewhat often in live poker).

I'm actually considering calling which is crazy because if he had just bet half the pot I would have had a very easy fold. But I'm so sure he is bluffing that I don't think I could live with myself if I folded. Still....it's really hard to call for your tourney life with A high on the river; so I wanted to think it over. I ultimately called....he showed a busted draw and I won a massive pot and got tons of respect at my table which helped me to wield that stack against them and survive to day 2 as one of the chip leaders.

So....in short....bet sizing definitely matters and bigger is not always better when bluffing.
 
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