BLUFF CATCHING

Oftentimes at low stakes the best time to bluff catch is when there are incongruencies in your opponent's line.

Like in your first example, maybe the BB thought the button would bet all their aces on the flop? I'm not saying they would, many players would check back top pair against the BB when the low card is paired. However, let's say you have a read against a certain opponent that they bet all their strong hands on the flop. Then when they check back flop and barrel turn and river on blanks, it's likely they're over bluffing.

Another good time to bluff catch is when there are many good potential bluff candidate hands on a given board, and few potential value combos. Sometimes it's your opponent's line that makes this true. Like if they bet so big they're only representing full houses, when it's unlikely they have a full house in that spot.

Those are some examples of times you might bluff catch.

You might want to consider another game, because we are always guessing. The best guessers win.

For instance, villain has capped himself, so you shove and he can’t call. Facing an overly cautious player, you bet big and they go away. I think you’re afraid of being that overly cautious player.

If you’re an ‘actual’ tight player like me and fit the OMC look, lots of players will think they can bluff you. You need info to pick them off.

Like an obvious one when villain is putting his river bet together before the card hits the board and he fires quickly on a nut changing card.
And sometimes you play chicken - I can’t tell you how strong it looks when I jam over the top of villain. They usually say quickly you’re good.

I feel you on this sir, but the game has not changed as much as you think - just a few outliers. Getting bluffed is not an assault on you or your ego, it’s part of the game. You give rope to these players when you’ve got it.

If you start calling down good players, you will find they still have it more than they don’t.
This may be the most important point.

The time I play chicken is not against good players, it’s usually a young overly aggressive player, often Asian makes a bet that I know is meant to fold me. Not afraid to go with my gut sometimes.

Another time is the same idea on the turn. I see a guy getting the jam ready before the turn card hits the board. So many times this is AK or another semi-bluff hoping you fold or they pair the river.

It’s really about individuals and your read on them. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

When someone shows you a bluff:
Laugh and fist bump them - you got me good sir and mean it, don’t get mad. If they show a bluff, they are not a good player and the money will come back to you soon.

Don’t waste time wondering with the guy that doesn’t show. You made your best decision
The next hand is all that matters.

Finally, I have found that it’s ok to avoid tricky players and not get involved. If you’re deep against someone that might jam at any moment, you should consider that before putting a lot of money in on early streets & then having to fold.

The greatest player in history said,
“Fold and live to fold again” Stu Ungar

Uh no.

I'm reading a lot of "vibes and feels" in your posts That's not really how poker works.

You need to identify an imbalance and then attack it with the countermeasure. In the case of bluffing, you need to find spots where your opponents are over-folding, and then bet. For bluff-catching, you need to identify spots where your opponent's range has too little value.

When facing a bet, just think to yourself "What hands are in his value range?". Then start naming hands in your head. You'll be able to tell if you're easily rattling off a list of obvious combos, or if you have to pause and study the board to try and identify hands. Then do the same thing trying to identify his bluff range. Again, see if it's easy and obvious to name hands, or if you're struggling to list more than a few.

You don't have to tank. This whole process should take less than ten seconds. You don't have to name every hand in his range. You don't have to nail it perfectly. You just have to "feel" whether it's noticeably easier for you to name bluff hands, or value hands. That will tell you where the imbalance is. Then you can attack it

Bluff catching is harder live than online.
The bigger the pot, the harder it is for you to bluff catch.
The more passive the opponent the harder it is for you to bluff catch.
Practice makes perfect.
Try to practice some online or try to bluff catch small pots.
Ask yourself questions after you did or did not bluff catch.

Also some of your hands might to be weak to valuebet but they are good bluff catchers after all draws missed on the river.

A lot of Vs seem to think paired boards are good to bluff on. Some posters ITF will say the same. I disagree. IME, low-stakes Vs are huge unbelievers on paired boards, so I'm not surprised V bluff-caught in your example hand. That said, I wouldn't bluff catch much at live low stakes until I had observed a pattern from a particular V and was exploiting that specifically. On a more general level, I wouldn't call it bluff catching, but I would just add some bluffs into Vs' ranges (say, about 10% random spazzy bluff factor) that might tip me toward a call in close EV situations.

The main thing to remember is that the vast majority of players at low stakes are wildly unbalanced. They either never bluff or are bluffing way too much. You want to bluff catch with the players that are in a lot of hands and are continually betting if there is not push back. If you haven't seen a player fold an obvious TP, you don't want to bluff them.

It's so player-dependent. Vs. most unknowns at 1/2 or 1/3, just fold to pressure, especially river bets. You will figure out soon enough if you should be picking them off. As a woman, I expect people to try to bluff me more often, but even then it's not as often as I think 😉