The Importance of bluffing

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Tosh_67

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I just had my most successful evening ever in terms of getting deep into tournaments...

Simultaneously placed 15 out of 5000+ and 12th out of 900+

The secret ! ...

Alcohol...

Well Alcohol led me to maybe the secret...

I have never bluffed as hard and as often as I did tonight...

Hopefully in the morning I will remember what I learnt this evening...

I am a terrible bluffer... I am the typical stereotypical miss the flop.. 'oh well' try to cheaply see the next card before folding type of player...

but tonight...

I was a bit tilted, and a bit drunk <which makes me play a bit more agg sometimes>

Tonight, I was missing Flops and betting hard ! normally i throw out pathetic whimping C Bets of 2 or 3 blinds... but tonight, I was sizing up my opponents stacks and betting usually half their stack if I could afford it....

I am not a good bluffer but I've started to think of what works against me and then try to reverse that angle.... And apply it against other opponents...

The thing about bluffing that has always troubled me up to now is that I am betting a lot of chips with nothing and if it fails... what do i do next ?.... Tonight I adopted the attitude... These are the chips I'm prepared to lose in an attempt to win a lot more ! And... It worked a lot more often and frequently than I thought it would !

I got really deep in 2 tourneys tonight and I have to say... It was not the alcohol <hope not> I think it was the conviction to bluff ! And I mean bluff with conviction ! Not allow opponents to call your bluff then leave you with a difficult choice to make ! I was forcing them to call with at least a third of their stack and in most cases they folded <to my relief and surprise>

I posted elsewhere that its difficult to bluff at micro level but i'm now unsure.... I often see Villains with awful stats but huge stacks... Makes me think, Are these players just great bluffers ?

All your comments are greatly appreciated but what I'd really like to ask is:-

Can you get really deep into tourneys without bluffing ?

Thanks for reading :)
 
rflbarreto

rflbarreto

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You have to take risks if you want to do final tables. Bluff and Coin flips are part of the game and you have to use it with wisdom.
 
Kenzie 96

Kenzie 96

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At the micro levels making plays against opponents who have no idea what they are doing, much less what you are doing is pointless. Congrats on the 2 nice finishes, but don't forget about variance, especially in big tourneys, so if this strategy doesn't work next 8 or 10 tourneys, don't throw more alcohol at it. ;)
Continued good luck to you.
 
therealslomo

therealslomo

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I would say in most large tournaments you really only need to pull off a hand full of bluffs at most in order to be successful.
 
IntenseHeat

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No doubt, bluffing is an important tool to have in your arsenal. But be careful not to get carried away with it. It can certainly backfire on you. I agree with therealslomo, you don't really need to be bluffing all that much or often to be successful. I've seen players get carried away with it all too often. They build up a big stack through aggressive play. But eventually someone looks them up. Next thing you know they've lost a couple of big pots. In the end, they always seem to end up getting a legit hand cracked when someone makes a call that they normally might not make if they hadn't already seen them get caught bluffing a couple of times already. Be careful not to let that be you.
 
VGShaa

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When you bluff you need to choose the right time and the player. Do not try to bluff Donkey, a player almost always make the call, so many times lost the big pots. And do not often bluff, you just stop believing. If bluffing then be prepared to put all three streets, and do it convincingly.
 
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WiZZiM

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you are better to be a hyper aggressive bluffer than a nit waiting for cards... plenty of them around ;)
 
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DeidaraLP

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As said above, bluffing is fine tool in your arsenal. But be careful because they will start reading your bluff patterns, so only do it when the flops is in your bluff favor and your almost certain that your enemy dosent hit top pair or have tons of outs.
 
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Tosh_67

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Bluffing does not come easy to me and I have not carried on bluffing as aggressive I did recently, I think I was getting away with a lot of bluffs due to my chip stack advantage a lot of the time and probably not because I was so convincing or believable...

I am however more positive when I think opponents have not hit the flop and I am trying to adapt some kind of controlled bluffing strategy as up to now I've just been too tame and I think it's led me to situations where I will either bust out or limp out...

Thanks for the feedback and advice... I'm encouraged that some people say you don't have to bluff that much to get deep into tourneys.... Phew :)
 
dino

dino

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my advice is:
do not drink and drive, and do not drink and play poker
:D
if you do, I wish you will seat at my money table and try to bluff me :)

gl anyway
 
drapichrust

drapichrust

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well i dont remember which one of pro poker players said: " I'dont need to hit the flop, it is enought if others miss it"
 
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zkel1980

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I started bluffing for a while, got a few results from it, then got carried away!!! It's not the way to play poker at all. I'm reigning myself back in just now and getting back to playing tight, I just know the big problem I have is knowing when to fold!!!.
 
DonV73

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I hope that you realize very soon that alcohol has nothing to do with why you play better sometimes.... :p
 
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zahridak

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but with alcohol your mind is so clear :D
 
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11012015

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Play one a tournament without any bluff. Following the conclusions.
 
niphon56

niphon56

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poker game is a bluff game, if you dislike risk it's difficult to final table.
good hand not always winner, pass river tell the truth.
 
vinylspiros

vinylspiros

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Yea bluffing drunk is fun. The truth of the matter is that you were just lucky that when you made the huge bets, villains didnt have anything. Because if they did, it doesnt matter how big your cbets were, if they had it, you would have lost.

My advice is to avoid playing wreckless(although it did work out for you and congrats).

Just wait for the right spots if you need to bluff and try to stay off the booze when playing.
 
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