Poker

[Bobisback]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

Bluffing is indeed a very small part of poker. If you just play good hands, you won't win a tournament but you'll go a lot further than if you keep bluffing.

People don't realize that when you watch Poker on TV, you don't see the hands where everyone folds. You see the bluffs and the raises, which don't happen every hand, so people assume that bluffing is a much bigger part of the game than it actually is.

If you bluff a lot, you'll start getting called a lot, and lose money. And the more you bluff the more chance you have of running into a great hand anyway. It should be situational. You need to pick the right moment to bluff, and generally a bluff should be targeted towards someone.

I play sometimes and I see a guy bluffing by making a pot sized bet after the flop with 4 people still in the hand. There is a technical term for players like that: it's called 'bad'.

Bluffing does tend to be a bigger part at the highest level as compared to the lower levels (though still not a huge part) because everyone at the higher levels knows pot odds and isn't going to give you great odds to make the call most of the time. At the lower levels, you don't have that, and considering a lot of people are just calling stations, your bluff gets called too much for it to be worthwhile.

In fact, in any limit play less than $5/$10, I've found that bluffing at all actually reduces my profit/hour. At least where I go, the $10/$20 seems to be a line of sorts, so from there on out, you may need to bluff once in a while (targetted bluffs, a couple times an hour, if that). At lower levels, if you do anything but the rare bluff, you're just asking to lose money. I mean, why do you need to bluff if your table is consistently giving you 8:1 odds on your open ended straight draw? Or the guy who keeps calling pot sized bets when you have the nuts and he has two pair...Just play the odds and make the money!

This is assuming a full table of course. In heads up, its usually a different story.

I said Bluffing is a huge part of Tournament play, if you raise AK, get two callers, flop comes out 4 7 5, someone bets at it, there is two options, fold or bet as if you have AA or 55. Bluffing every hand, or even once every 10 hands is just an invitation to get beaten. It should only be done when you think you can take the pot.

Also, i meant NL not Limit. I would only bluff the flop on Limit and if i was called, that would be it. No point trying to bet people off when they know they just have to call a set amount to chase their gut shot.

[open365]

There's a difference between bluffing and semi bluffing though.

A stone cold bluff is a move (or i consider it to be a move) when you know you are beat but you're trying to force your opponent of a hand he wouldn't normaly throw away.

Semi-bluffing is usualy taking advantage of passive and weak players who won't play back at you , ie betting when it's checked to you or raising somebody that's obviously trying to steal the pot with a trash hand.

In the later stages of a tournament every good player semi-bluffs a lot because there's a lot of dead money in the pot before the cards have been dealt, players like Gavin Smith and Daniel negreanu are masters in this, they focus on picking up small pots and accumulating chips by being aggressive and taking advantage of more passive players, they rarely get involved in big pots unless they have a very big hand.

However, it's totaly possible to win a tournament without properly bluffing. Stone cold bluffing for a lot of chips is incredibly risky and something i just don't do. More experienced players can do it more often because they pick better places to do it, but for lower level players imo it's not worth it, it's a lot harder to bluff a bad player than it is a good one, and if your a lower level player you won't be playing against good ones very often.

And if you ever get annoyed about $5 to a two outer, just think how bad this must feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k8mdvx0RWM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYwP...elated&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg551...elated&search=

[simmy]

Currently the chip leader in the $50 deepstack freezeout on Fortune Poker.

I have never won a decent sized tournament and would really love to win this, more for the win than the money.

15 players left, I will let you know how it goes...

[simmy]

Originally Posted by open365

There's a difference between bluffing and semi bluffing though.

A stone cold bluff is a move (or i consider it to be a move) when you know you are beat but you're trying to force your opponent of a hand he wouldn't normaly throw away.

Semi-bluffing is usualy taking advantage of passive and weak players who won't play back at you , ie betting when it's checked to you or raising somebody that's obviously trying to steal the pot with a trash hand.

In the later stages of a tournament every good player semi-bluffs a lot because there's a lot of dead money in the pot before the cards have been dealt, players like Gavin Smith and Daniel negreanu are masters in this, they focus on picking up small pots and accumulating chips by being aggressive and taking advantage of more passive players, they rarely get involved in big pots unless they have a very big hand.

However, it's totaly possible to win a tournament without properly bluffing. Stone cold bluffing for a lot of chips is incredibly risky and something i just don't do. More experienced players can do it more often because they pick better places to do it, but for lower level players imo it's not worth it, it's a lot harder to bluff a bad player than it is a good one, and if your a lower level player you won't be playing against good ones very often.

And if you ever get annoyed about $5 to a two outer, just think how bad this must feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k8mdvx0RWM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYwP...elated&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg551...elated&search=

Well said.

New series of High Stakes Poker is out on Monday in the US

[open365]

Can't wait till they get the videos up on pokertube, they've already put up the first two episodes of the WSOP main event up aswell.

Season 3 had some sick hands in it.

David Williams raises to 1900 with J9, Brad Booth raises to 5k with 24s, Phil Ivey re-raises to 40k with pocket kings, Williams folds and Booth calls with 4 high. Flop comes 267 rainbow and Booth moves all in for 230 thousand, WITH 4 HIGH! and Ivey takes 10 minutes before folding.

Wish me luck, i'm playing a $5+50 staked tournament on Saturday where to winner gets a free card runners account.

[simmy]

Originally Posted by open365

Can't wait till they get the videos up on pokertube, they've already put up the first two episodes of the WSOP main event up aswell.

Season 3 had some sick hands in it.

David Williams raises to 1900 with J9, Brad Booth raises to 5k with 24s, Phil Ivey re-raises to 40k with pocket kings, Williams folds and Booth calls with 4 high. Flop comes 267 rainbow and Booth moves all in for 230 thousand, WITH 4 HIGH! and Ivey takes 10 minutes before folding.

Wish me luck, i'm playing a $5+50 staked tournament on Saturday where to winner gets a free card runners account.

Good Man. Cardrunners changed my life!

[open365]

I doubt i'll get it, it's gonna be about 17 players and with $5.50 being all the money i have i'm playing for 3rd.

How many people entered the tournament your in Simmy? I'd watch but i only have Full Tilt and Stars on my comp

[simmy]

Originally Posted by open365

I doubt i'll get it, it's gonna be about 17 players and with $5.50 being all the money i have i'm playing for 3rd.

How many people entered the tournament your in Simmy? I'd watch but i only have Full Tilt and Stars on my comp

120 odd, have the second chip lead with 5 left..

[simmy]

3 left, still second

[simmy]

Last 2, equal chips

[simmy]

Me: 324850
Him: 121800

No excuses now... I have to finish this.

[open365]

Go Simmy!

[simmy]

Couldnt finish him off....

What a joke. AK v A7 all in preflop and he rivers a straight...

Not happy but I played well in a tournament for the first time in ages (online anyway).

Picked up $900 but really wanted to win that.

[open365]

Wp sim

[simmy]

How's everyone been getting as of late?