Bluffing frequency

[the_rookie]

Hi, I play no limit and I never make stone cold bluffs. I do however, semi bluff when the time comes, but my question is whether it's important to make big moves without a hand? I also play 25nl, so maybe it's not a big deal there. But should I be prepared to include this play in my arsenal at say NL100?

That's my goal is to make money at 100nl and it'd be nice if I could reach it playing pretty standard poker.

[flytrap]

You can make money playing ABC at NL100, but against the good players (and yes there are some pretty good players at 100nl and 200nl) you do need to do some bluffing. Sometimes you just raise a bad hand, get called on the flop and turn, by a solid player, but then either a scare card hits, or a blank hits, but you just don't have them on a hand that would call an all-in. Also, sometimes you can bluff-raise AI against stupid blocking bets.

[AP0CALYP5E]

at 100NL You can make bluffs, but only on the right people, and you have to be sure they are capable of laying down an overpair.

[the_rookie]

Thanks guys for the response. Do you think it makes up a large part of your winrate?

[AaronBrown]

I would say it differently. You definitely have to play some low card hands, otherwise you are too predictable. You also have to bet sometimes after missing a draw.

However, you can make sure your card hands are suited, in which case you might consider it a semi-bluff. You can also choose to bet after missing a draw in circumnstances where you have some chance of winning anyway.

Personally, I do pure bluffs. That allows me to bluff whenever I want, and I think it's more important to pick the right times to bluff than to have some value if the bluff does not induce a fold. But not everyone agrees. Sklansky, for example, has said never to make a negative EV bluff, and a pure bluff has to be negative EV (you do it because it increases your EV on other hands).

[Bang584]

It's not important to make big moves without a hand, but learning to it well can improve your overall profit.

At 100NL, it depends on who's at your table. If it's a stronger player, you should bluff periodically, or they'll fold every time you bet. If it's a bunch of calling stations, practically all bets should go straight to value town.

Of course, a big part of poker is avoiding the strong players while searching for weaker ones. With proper table selection, it's possible you could get away with almost never bluffing.

[itWASaDREAM]

I think that your going to have to bluff, otherwise the people that you are going to be playing with regularly are going to run you over. They will know that when your betting you've got it, and when your checking your asking them to take the pot.

[infinity235]

[ QUOTE ]

Sklansky, for example, has said never to make a negative EV bluff, and a pure bluff has to be negative EV (you do it because it increases your EV on other hands).

[/ QUOTE ]

According to TOP, pure bluffing is profitable in certain situations. Whenever the odds you lay your opponent are at the same time the odds of your bluffing, your bluff is always going to be profitable.

[PantsOnFire]

Yes, you need to pull off many stone cold bluffs.

However, there is a quite a range of when to do this. Here are some examples in order of likelyhood to succeed:

1. Continuation bet - this is a simple bluff that has a high likelyhood of success in the right circumstances.

2. Betting the flop when you last to act - when a rag board comes in a multiway pot and it is checked around, you can have a good chance at picking up the pot with a decent bet. With no draws on board, a call will likely mean somebody slowplaying somethimg big and that doesn't happen very often.

3. Learn weakness patterns of straightforward players - you can pick up a lot of pots by simply being aggressive against someone you have a read on as being weak. The same applies for overly tight players who check to you.

4. Scare card on the turn - against weak and/or tight players you can buy a lot of pots with a big turn bet when a scare card comes.

5. Preflop - you need to occasionaly raise with marginal hands. As well, you can occasionaly 3-bet marginal hands.

6. Bet into a pf raiser when out of position.

7. Multi-barrelling - this is getting more difficult because you really need to know your opponent. And it can get expensive if your reads are off. However, you run over a lot of players doing this and it's a barrel of fun.

Bluffing in position is much more successful. Lots of players are susceptible to this and will only come back at you with a high PP or if they hit the flop with TPTK or better. If you can make your bluffs look like value bets, you will be more successful.

A lot of poker players think the only stone cold bluff is a master plan that ends with a huge raise on the river to move a guy off of a big hand.

You need to pick out the players at your table that are susceptible to being bluffed and beat on them. It's simply a matter of aggression and taking pots where nobody has a hand better than second pair and sometimes even top pair with no kicker.

Finally, it's important to keep a really good handle on what your table image is.