The time to raise a bluffer is the first time they come at you. Never call. To call a bluff is the worst misnomer in poker. It’s as useless as standing there, glaring, when the schoolyard bully pushes you. You’re only inviting them to keep pushing. Raise and raise big. Let them know you’re not having it.
Of course, the tricky bit is guessing correctly with nothing to go on that they are in fact bluffing. Still, watching and waiting pretty much shuts down your action until you’re dealt a monster.
ps. I agree with your opinion about the tight player who, it would seem, rarely bluffs. Opponents ‘should’ fold when that player comes at them like a no-knock warrant. Unfortunately, I also agree with Smooth99. Replayers don’t like to fold.
I actually agree with you — while bluffing correctly can win you a lot of chips, I think an even bigger benefit (in terms of bottom line) is that being a known bluffer gets us paid with our thick value.
I disagree. I’ve watched dozens of poker videos and no one shows their cards when they win a bluff EXCEPT if they think it will rattle the opponent. Every book and article I read, said never show your cards unless you have to in order to win a hand. It’s not my opinion, just those of several dozen pros. I agree with their logic. There seems to be this “Honor Of Thieves” that is in this site that doesn’t appear to be in the real world.
I think showing a bluff can be beneficial especially if you very seldom bluff. It can lead to others paying you off when you have the nuts. But I never show my cards unless I have to.
Every poker book I’ve read, all the way back to Doyle and Sklansky, advises you not to show your cards voluntarily. On that we agree, and as I stated, I automuck my cards.
In the real world, however, there are two times when you are mandated to show. The first is, as you note, to take down a called pot. The second is when you’ve been called and have the losing hand. By saying, “I call,” your opponent is literally paying to see your cards. You can’t (or shouldn’t) muck them. It’s in the official rules and practiced at most casinos. Conversely, if you called your opponent and they have the better hand, you do not have to show.
All that said, I have been known to tell someone via the chat what I had in the just finished hand. I rarely do, and only with friendly players whose game I respect. Because I respect them, I don’t lie in those chats, although that’s an option of which others might avail themselves.
In the process of a recent chat, I folded a 10-8c to a 100k bet when a fourth club hit the river. I felt the bet was marginally too expensive for me to pay him off.
Afterwards, I shared that the river card had killed me, but the other player said, “No, I had two pair.”
In this instance, volunteering information taught me something about my own play that I might consider in the future. I complimented his bluff, and filed the lesson in the back of my mind.
Hi johan, I bluff when I think I can make the other players fold, looking at the floped cards and wondering if I have the Nut. I never show, if you want to see call lol
Bluffing is a tool that can be useful. It depends on what the others in the hand are doing or if heads up, your position. I do it occasionally when the odds are good I will be successful. I show my cards occasionally when I have caused every one to fold because it gives me credibility when I choose to bluff.