You’re Making A Huge Mistake Bluffing
It’s not your frequency, but you should be bluffing more, yes, even in low stakes games. It’s not the hands you choose to bluff or the boards you choose to bluff.
It’s how you feel.
People always ask how to calm their nerves when bluffing, and some of the best advice usually involves breathing techniques. Which is good. High tension situations activate physical reactions in you, adrenaline , cortisol etc. that are appropriate for keeping you safe from predators that want to eat you. If your game selection isn’t horrible, your life isn’t in danger, so it makes sense to deactivate or mitigate these inappropriate physical reactions.
But the other thing to remember is you aren’t even being metaphorically hunted. You are the hunter. Bluffing is putting your opponent to the test, they’re supposed to be anxious, not you. This is supposed to be the fun part of the game.
So next time you’re running a triple barrel with a river overbet all in, remember you’re the predator and enjoy it.
6 Replies
I think based on looks alone most people have trouble discerning between call or fold if they get bluff shoved on by players who are nervous or unassuming at the poker table, and that after they call they find more often than not that people probably aren’t bluffing in those spots, most of the time.
At low stakes most people are playing face up poker so it’s easy to tell when they have value.
I think based on looks alone most people have trouble discerning between call or fold if they get bluff shoved on by players who are nervous or unassuming at the poker table, and that after they call they find more often than not that people probably aren’t bluffing in those spots, most of the time.At low stakes most people are playing face up poker so it’s easy to tell when th
I find this last part increasingly less true. There are so many trained players from 1-2 on up that it just isn't like yesteryear at all.
In terms of picking off bluffs by good unreadable players, "Is it a great bluffing spot for him" is a better angle than personal tells or feels for most (esp. those who seem pretty dull to intuitive reads). So with this you aren't reading the player's behavior but the spot.
I find this last part increasingly less true. There are so many trained players from 1-2 on up that it just isn't like yesteryear at all.In terms of picking off bluffs by good unreadable players, "Is it a great bluffing spot for him" is a better angle than personal tells or feels for most (esp. those who seem pretty dull to intuitive reads). So with this you aren't reading the
With good and bad players at every stake level comparatively speaking the players with the least experience are playing 1/2 and 1/3. So general population tendencies are going to be way off in terms of optimal frequencies when it comes to bluffing as it would like value betting or any other actions.
It’s common knowledge that a good amount of players at those stakes aren’t thinking critically about the game and rely on feels or tells in their decision making process.
Im not saying it can work, like when an old man raises preflop after limping for an hour and you have jacks everyone knows you should fold because it’s probably aces. That’s a pretty solid tell.
Make sure a lot of your bluffs are in fact semi-bluffs technically (gut shots or a lot of good turn cards that can give you backdoors). Stone cold bluffs I assume will be quite rare overall.
With good and bad players at every stake level comparatively speaking the players with the least experience are playing 1/2 and 1/3. So general population tendencies are going to be way off in terms of optimal frequencies when it comes to bluffing as it would like value betting or any other actions.It’s common knowledge that a good amount of players at those stakes aren&#
And their bluffing strats are generally WAY more advanced now than in decades past even in the smaller limits, which was my point. I'm comparing the game to yesteryear, the great evolution of the playing population, and you are more comparing high and low limit players, it seems. I think this "spot" angle works quite well (even though I'm the last guy to discount behavior and feel tells for some of us) as it seems like some 80% or so of players now are or at least aspire to be semi-pro, whereas in the past that figure might be 25%. Drunk and otherwise clueless businessmen blowing off steam in the games, at least in major cardrooms I frequent, seem a dying breed. Most tables I play at have none.
And their bluffing strats are generally WAY more advanced now than in decades past even in the smaller limits, which was my point. I'm comparing the game to yesteryear, the great evolution of the playing population, and you are more comparing high and low limit players, it seems. I think this "spot" angle works quite well (even though I'm the last guy to discount behavior and f
No I get it. You’re just comparing the games now to the games of yesteryear. And yesteryears skill wasn’t as skilled as this year.
But the games overall are still filled with very bad players and they are as beatable as they’ve ever been, because it’s all relative. The worst players have gotten better but they’re still losing to the average skilled player, whatever that might mean in its current form
