How do you know a player is bluffing or not?

Played in the tournament , I had a medium steak on hand AJ began to raise 3BB one player confirmed . The flop came JKJ. I have raised 5BB he 10BB. I am all in ( thought bluffing ) the player confirms . In the hands of a JK. I lost .
How do I know a bluff ?

The only sure way to know if a player is bluffing, in a specific hand, is to go to showdown (unless he's the type to show you his bluffs regardless).
Obviously you can't do that every time you want to know or you'll go broke pretty quickly.
So, you watch and take notes, let some other players call him down and see what hands he's playing (and from what position).
What your aiming for is getting an idea of how likely it is that he's bluffing ... and that's as good as it gets.

As for the hand you described (I can't work out exactly what the starting stacks were but ..)
He called you preflop (so you can be reasonably comfortable that he hasn't got AA or KK )
You make a continuation bet on the flop (villain not going to read much into this if he hit the flop in any way)
and villain raises
- He could be bluffing but see above. Only consider this if you have information on him that suggests this.
- If he's not bluffing and he's hit something what could he have? The only hand that beats you is KJ but he could be raising with Jx or even Kx.

I would have got all my chip in on that flop with AJ .. coolers are part of the game.

If he's doing it right, you don't know he's bluffing. You just know you can't beat him.

In the hand you describe, if I'm following it correctly, someone calling a preflop raise with KJ is not unusual. That's not a bluff. You just got coolered with a KJJ flop.

Most of us would have lost big with the hand you described. If you have AJ and the flop comes JKJ, only one hand can beat you. Unfortunately, he had it.

Alexsandr Kononov said:

Played in the tournament , I had a medium steak on hand AJ began to raise 3BB one player confirmed . The flop came JKJ. I have raised 5BB he 10BB. I am all in ( thought bluffing ) the player confirms . In the hands of a JK. I lost .
How do I know a bluff ?

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You must learn to read souls across the internet.

Alexsandr Kononov said:

Played in the tournament , I had a medium steak on hand AJ began to raise 3BB one player confirmed . The flop came JKJ. I have raised 5BB he 10BB. I am all in ( thought bluffing ) the player confirms . In the hands of a JK. I lost .
How do I know a bluff ?

Click to expand...

In your situation, it's cooler, you lose in any case because usually no one player not fold trips in this board.... How to define your opponent is bluffing, in a nutshell, it can not be described.. It depends on the position, , the texture of the board, your position, vpip%, pfr%, steals and so on... More read articles, books, forums and with experience you will understand that when someone is bluffing..

Extensively Monitor the Table. Especially the ones who Raise outrageously and often and the People with Large Stacks. Over time you'll Gain insight on their Hands and play style but only if it comes down to showing cards else it's risky to assume anything. Some players with a Large Stack take advantage by pressuring others to Fold or have noted that many are Nits at the current table so you'll rarely see their hand since others would rather fold than take him/her on. Don't be afraid to challenge them if you do have a strong hand or undisputedly the best winning hand off the Flop. It's not always easy but being patient is the Key and it usually pays off well and may even anger the loser to play more wildly and in the event that they do, it's smoother sailing from there.

Look for the guys who bet a lot more than they should post-flop. generally speaking the flop hits a person's hand in a signficant way somewhere between a third and half the time (not sure on the exact statistics, and it depends on what they have as connectors and suited cards have more opportunities.) If they're betting the flop or reraising the flop often (ie more than 50%ish over the long haul) some of them aren't real. So how do you determine if it is or not?

This is where putting your opponent on a range for their preflop action. say you raised significantly preflop and they called...and that they don't just call every hand. That means some of their hands were deemed sufficiently crappy that they didn't keep them. So if you have ace king, and a flop comes 2 2 K, there isn't much chance of him keeping hand hand with a 2 since it would be too crappy to call the preflop bet, save pocket 2s and maybe stuff like Ace 2. So you won't likely be against trip 2s. So if he's going crazy like he has one he's likely bluffing (still can never be 100%).

It's a long and detailed subject that this has barely begun to scratch the surface of (and there's a whole plethora of post-flop range stuff too... read around, especially the hand analysis forums and you'll get an idea).

You just gotta go with ur gut and read the hand as it plays out... losing 2 kj with aj is classic online poker run out

Blue_Fossil said:

If he's doing it right, you don't know he's bluffing. You just know you can't beat him.

In the hand you describe, if I'm following it correctly, someone calling a preflop raise with KJ is not unusual. That's not a bluff. You just got coolered with a KJJ flop.

Most of us would have lost big with the hand you described. If you have AJ and the flop comes JKJ, only one hand can beat you. Unfortunately, he had it.

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i lost a big pot in the casino the other day just like this, i had J8, everybody got in and saw a cheap flop. flop comes J2J villian raises $30, folds around to me, i shove on him , he calls flips over pocket deuces. it was a $200 + pot.

Just need to get a read on players you are worried about. Let people play hands against them. It's much harder to pick out bluffers through online poker oppose to live.

You cannot know if a player is bluffin INTO SINGLE ONE hand....but you can feel him instead of his game (belong 30+ hands...) and his spirit can confirm you when is purposing to bluff in procent of 60%...sometimes you can know that's he's probably bluffin about the time reactions...some times he make unsuall tihings...but in poker everything is "probably" = "he's probably bluffing" and you must have a strong hand to confirm that!

you can read him easy if you play one day whit him

You must play a lots of pots and remember every player what he have in each hand. Also if you think they bluff reraise , you wiil see probably fold , its rare they bluff you with all in , but I see lots of players ( Russian offcourse ) who push all in with nothing at all after flop. but like i said - playing lots of pots and tournaments , and wrote notice of each player ( i notice very game-every player). Now i have almost 6000 players in my notebook on PS. GL

There are many signs and the only way is through observation.

Lets say, for live poker, look for tells.

For online, observe closely for such betting patterns.

if the player is putting you all in. he can only re raise with a better hand, same hand or a bluff. you gotta pay close attention early stage to note down pattern and decisions. If you know your opponent plays his Pairs, ace high top kickers or connectors a certain way, youll usually catch a pattern on bets when they have it or either bluffing

I'd shove preflop and I don't think it's a close decision with <15 big blinds.

As played, I'd shove the flop.

As played on the flop, it's an easy call against all but the tightest of opponents. It takes a big sample size against a specific opponent to know that his range has collapsed to (full house) and nothing else. So just call and shrug cus there's nothing you can do.

Seriously though, shove preflop.

you can never know for sure if one player is bluffing however there might be some signs that he might be bluffing for example when someone checks on flop and turn and bets high on the river after a low card come out without any flush or straight projects on the river you can think this players is bluffing to take the pot, he could be having a set or a small pair but in most cases he is just trying to steal the pot. it happens very often also when a player has position over the others for example 3 players check and the last one to act bets. maybe he hit a good hand like top pair however the fact that everyone on the table checks is a good oportunity for this player to make a bluff and make the other players folding hand which may be better than theirs.

Alexsandr Kononov said:

Played in the tournament , I had a medium steak on hand AJ began to raise 3BB one player confirmed . The flop came JKJ. I have raised 5BB he 10BB. I am all in ( thought bluffing ) the player confirms . In the hands of a JK. I lost .
How do I know a bluff ?

Click to expand...

I think if i was in your position i would have played it about the same.. Sometimes your opponent happens to be holding the nuts.. but id say more often than not, youre in the lead and will most likely take the hand.

Thats the kinda hand i shove post flop and lose..

the dynamics of the game, betting on the flop, notes if there is, the structure of the Board.