Catching a bluff online

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Slivera22

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I started started playing three months ago with freinds live. 20 dollar buy in, its a friendly game and I do pretty well. I play a pretty aggressive style. Wide range of hands. Its a gamble because I either hit flops and go up pretty fast or i slowly bleed out from not being able to catch anything or not getting enough action when I do. But i guess that is tight vs loose.

I also play online at Carbon. Most small/mid range sit and go's a few tourneys.
I do pretty well and ive been up. My question is however, whats a good method to catch bluffs online. I try to look at blinds and position and how they are betting during the hand in general. But I cant seem to get a good read on people. I've lost quite a bit of hands trying to call someone who I think is bluffing. Its hard because a few hands later I see some other guy shoving/betting with complete trash and I think i can get paid off.

Any tips?
 
warturtle7

warturtle7

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there is no fail proof way to catch a bluff in online poker. A good strategy is to be concentrated and taking notes on the players, like Player1 shoved with the nuts, Player2 check raises with trash, notes like that help you further when they are up against you
 
BearPlay

BearPlay

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Hey silvera,

There is a lot of material on the subject of online poker tells if you want to look in YouTube, but here is a video that I have found to be useful. Best of luck ;)

 
Arjonius

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Frankly, trying to catch bluffs in any game you can afford to play on a $20 BR is mainly guesswork. It's not uncommon to see situations where people basically don't know what to do, and if they don't know themselves, how are you supposed to figure out what they've done using logic?

Also, unless you're crushing it, I suspect you have a fair number of other areas in your game that would be more productive to work on than catching bluffs. Not saying ignore it, just to prioritize it appropriately.
 
shanest

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Thanks for the video. Some useful tips in there
 
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Swickster007

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I've noticed that bluffs don't happen as often as I thought. I would look at position and how many players are on the table. The lead position isn't going to bluff when 8 people are still in on the hand. But if it's heads up, you almost always expect a bet whether they hit or not. I generally lay do to a bluff if it's a good/credible player especially if they have a decent chip stack. They had to have won some hands to get the chips so I assume others tried to call there 'bluff' and lost. Its real hard to tell online bc you cant see reactions.
 
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aznman08

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In catching a bluff you have to make the opponent's hand make sense to what the board is. A simple rule for a bluff to work would make it conform to the story, "Does the bluff make sense to how the hand played out?"

Course in tournament poker, you don't want to risk a high percentage of your stack unless you're sure about it. Unlike cash games, making a big mistake in a tournament could mean the difference between winning, cashing and busting out of the money.
 
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TheNoobie

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#2 basically covered all of it. Catching bluffs, either live or online is based on a collected knowledge about a particular player. When I'm going for a Bluff Bust, I'm making sure of two things - firstly, even if he is bluffing, having a low pair, can I beat that? And do I have the highest possible card? From then on it becomes easier. But most of the time I catch somebody bluffing me He realizes it the first time I call him, but never stops till the river, and in most cases it becomes push or fold, so you have to be certain and willing to risk everything. I've busted out a couple of tournaments, where I was bluffing and people that caught me had K high and such, but still had better hand than mine. I'm more willing to try and catch a bluff with a tight player, than with a loose one. Because you know tight is premium hands mostly, when the board comes 3 5 8rbw he bets either on a overpair or a high card. If you know how tight exactly is he - then based on his position on the table you can add or remove a couple of starting hands, like suited connectors ( possible for a tight player on the button ). But if he is in the first positions I put him on a high card most of the time. It doesnt work all the time tho, as I said - I've busted out of tournaments thanks to trashy readings. You have to take chances. That is if you dont have a hand at all.
 
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Scrover

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You can try to look for a bit of a tell or two. In live games, I like to look for people that care so much about their face that they don't realise they're giving away tells in their neck or hands etc. Try to look at your players statistics (if you can). If a story doesn't make sense in microstakes, it probably is a bluff (unless it's a regular or for some odd reason your opponent doesn't know anything and thinks his A-Rag is the nuts preflop).

The twenty dollar buy in game that you play, how many players are playing and the pay out structure will determine your strategy. If it's top heavy, then your strategy is a fine one.
 
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Slivera22

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Well its a friendly and ive picked up on some tells by looking at their face as cards are layed and then waiting to look at the flop/turn etc. As far as picking up on tells during betting. Its harder. Plus these arent the most experienced poker players, they arent bad. But the game is treated pretty casually and they could just be acting themselves if you get my point. and yeah top 1 and 2 pay only. Usually there is some kind of split at the end cause most of them hate playing heads up.
I like the strategy but I need to adjust it based on a few players who play very aggressive. Lately ive been losing because they get a large chip stack and its hard to constantly meet their aggression when im not catching flops.
But with bluffing its mainly online ive been struggling with bad calls/bluffs. Ive tighten up a bit online and done alot better. Wide range early on while not taking big risks, and the extracting as much as i can when i get nuts. Then tightening up as it goes on and i have a good stack. Won a few sit and goes today and went up nicely.

I just need to watch my calls and give people more credit. That seems to always be how i lose chips, calling stuff I shouldnt.
 
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Scrover

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Hmm, looks good from my perspective. If you are experienced enough, go on and play small ball (that's what I do from time to time), raise a lot of pots with hands with potential and when you flop huge, you can almost always get a double up or even more. That is, if stacks are deep.

I do understand why most people don't like playing heads up. You know, it's almost the same thing every time. Raise preflop, c-bet and take it down. But if you can trust your heads up play, then go for it.

I think stick with your tells that you can pick up and pick up anything you can see wrong and things your opponents would/wouldn't do if they had what they are representing.
 
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