The Perks of being a Bluffer

Replay Poker Poker Strategy
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Here, I’ve rewritten the first long paragraph in your comment as a template you can maybe use to be more clear and concise in the future:

Ok here is a low-frequency float with KQ.

Context: I’ve played a lot against Villain, who is on the loose-aggressive side.

Action: Effective stacks 18bb. Villain limps EP, which I read as weak. Hero raises 2.75x from MP, Villain calls.

Flop comes low cards with 2 hearts, Villain checks, Hero checks. Hero has Kh.

Turn comes a card which I’m leaving out of this HH for some reason, though it is surely relevant, but I’d rather spend three sentences describing my mindset than actually tell you the important details in the action, so here we are. Villain bets 1bb, Hero calls with bad intentions.

River comes a heart, Villain bets 1bb, Hero raises to 7x but I’m going to call it 5x because getting basic math wrong is more fun. I felt proud of myself so I showed the bluff, even though the way I play this is probably just bad for my image.

In closing, here are some irrelevant details about how often I’d bluffed successfully this tournament.

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Being more direct and not just giving you a hard time :wink: here is a good template for posting hand histories:

-Provide context before the hand starts, or after. It’s difficult keeping up with the action while someone is also adding notes about mindset. If you must include notes in the flow of the hand, keep them brief and to the point (e.g. “I thought he was likely overbluffing” not “this is a loose to semi loose to very wide, aggressive, semi-aggressive type player, who will often bluff, is capable of bluffing, can have wider range here than he is supposed to, and likes to steal pots when the board is wet, so I decided I will maybe call wider, make more thin value bets than usual, to counter his loose, very loose, aggressive, LAG type strategy”)

-line breaks between flop/turn/river make it easy to follow the action

-there should always be a line that MERELY summarizes the action on that street. again, if you must comment in the middle of the HH, separate it visually from the action so that readers can go back and easily just see who did what on each street.

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Had no idea about these discussions, pretty interesting

2 Likes
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Here is a Bluff where I bluffed Almost Live out of his shoes. It was in the Frozen Comet, 1 mil buy in, 33 mil prize pool.

Blinds were about 200/400. I had AJ suited hearts. I had 8k. Almost live had 16k. I Raised UTG to 900 preflop. Almost Live called on BB.

Flop: T99 possible flush draw.

Normally this is a board that better for Almost Live’s range, as could have a low pocket, A9, AT, 87, combo flush draw, straight draw, T9. But I had a semi tight image, and since I raised UTG, figured Almost live would put me on a over pair that better then his possible pocket, or on a hand like AK suited, nut flush draw. So I bet half pot cbet. Almost live called, knowing that I could have missed flop on Ax, KQ air.

Turn: T99x, probably was a 7.

Since Almost live called, I put his call on a draw, or a weak T8 suited type hand, or calling because I could have Ax, KQ type air.

He checked.

Which helped make my read. Sure he could have been slowplaying, but thought that unlikely on a wet, drawy board.

So I bet 4700 pot, leaving about 1000 to 1300 behind.

Almost Live used every last second on his clock, and tank folded.

I then showed bluff.

The bluff might have semi tilted Almost Live, as he shoved K8 all in and bad beated my AK that called all in. Then he started shoving, raising A LOT, quite wide, which not normal for him, as he is normally between tight to semi tight.

I was bad beat twice late tournament. And then I was ULTIMATE CARD DEAD, very late tournament, after the 2 bad beats. Couldn’t even get wide suited 1 gappers. All the hand were mostly 72 type hands. And best hands were Q9, J9, that got UTG, and too short a stack(13 bb’s) to raise, shove, limp, etc. And then a opponent slowplay on a extremely wet, drawy board, flopped nut flush, my middle pair, very short shorty stack busted out of tournament, 1 spot shy of final table, 2 spots shy of cashing.

Despite the result I played very well, and I had bluffed about 4 to 6 to 8 times, and had cbetted about 50% of time, and about 50% of those I had cbetted with Air, and had Cbetted with complete stone cold air, nothing about 3 to 5 to 7 times. And stole blinds about 4 to 7 to 10 to 13 times, all tournament long.

It was good bluffing Almost Live out of his shoes, as Almost Live is a extremely good, extremely high ranked player, that is extremely hard to bluff, and always seems to have better then whatever you have, whether TPTK, or 2 pair, trips, set, etc.

Here is link to Hand History. Sometimes it doesn’t show up, and instead shows a log in link to Replay.

Log In · Get into our Poker Games - Replay Poker

Here is the Hand History Hand Number.

1217158062

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Correction. It was a 996 flop. And a T, not a 7 came on the turn. Reasoning, read was still the same, based on the correct flop, turn, and on Almost Live the player.

Also player knowledge on a player like Almost Live that does have a fold button, despite being hard to bluff, because of how he seems to soul read you, is very important. If I didnt pay attention, didnt have player knowledge, etc, then this is not a bluff I would normally make on a normally semi bad board for my range, and normally good board for opponents calling range, late tournament, at higher stakes.

So player knowledge, reads, etc, are extremely important in bluffing. Also out leveling is also important. What leveling is, is example where Almost Live called possibly, probably knowing that I could be cbetting with AX, KQ air, and where because I knew that he knew that, which is out leveling him, I knew that he knew, and that thus he could be calling me light, and could fold to a turn bluff. That’s a example of leveling. So it’s also important to play above 1st level, 2nd level, 3rd level, etc thinking, and out level, play the player, instead of only just only the cards, hands, boards, flops, turns, etc.

Like Younguru said, bluffing in good spots, against the right players, in right situations, and being able to recognize those spots, situations, players, etc, and execute those bluffs, is extremely important.

Also even if your bluff fails, its better to bluff and fail, get caught, then to never bluff, extremely rarely bluff, and then blind down and bust out. Also if get caught bluffing or if show a bluff occasionally, then can tilt players, and get called when do have the goods, and so the caught, shown bluffs balances out your range, makes you less predictable.

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@Asuronetorius nice bluff. @AlmostLive is not “tight to semi tight” lol.