Pure bluffs on the river can be very profitable!
A big leak I’ve found in people’s play is when there’s 10ish BB in the pot in a multiway pot, and action checks down for all 3 streets, you can min bet the river for profit when you have a hand with no showdown value, such as 10-high.
My experience on this site is that people will call with any pair, but fold Ace-high. The bluff usually will fail, but it only needs to work 10% of the time to be profitable, and I find it’s well worth the risk.
Not true being profitable, depends on the pot and your chip investment. Your bluff will usually fail because almost every player plays to the end no matter what they have.
You must be playing different players than I do!
I have been here for 8 years. I’ve been at tables with just about all players give or take you.
Bluffing is for sure an Art
Bluffing can be very player dependant as some players will call down i most spots. These players can be referred to as stations and taking player notes can help you avoid these players.
Also on the opersite side you will have players that are over passive and will fold in a lot of situations referred to as passive. You can make notes on these players to use to your advantage when trying to find spots to bluff.
I agree. Bluffing players that call every hand is definitely a bad idea. Conversely, bluffing overly passive players can definitely be a smart play.
The more players you eliminate by bluffing increases your odds of winning that bluffing hand.
It is true that bluffing on the river especially has to make some sense to most players.
But as stated earlier in the thread (almost) never bluff a calling station (and one a site with play money like Replay Poker there are a LOT of calling stations) and often bluff weak tight players - especially steal their blinds sometimes with any two cards (no story needed if they overfold).
A fact that surprises many players is that you should often bluff and semi-bluff more often on the flop and turn than the river.
If you play against an unknown player (or a GTO-player) you should always have more value hands than bluffs on the river. Like if you bet pot you should have 2 value hands for every bluff if you want to be unexploitable. Again here on Replay you can value- bet a lot more and bluff less against most players.
Most math and text on the subject are also solved for when you only have one opponent left.
In multiway pots, you can and often should bluff very rarely on a site that is full of recreational players who want to play a lot of hands.
My bluffs most of the times get called , i cannot get a fold . Maybe because it’s low buy in games , or centrolls/freerolls or homegames , there the investment is very small or none , so most players don’t care to lose many chips to a bluff , or even lose all their stack , the rebuy is very cheap . . in these games its very hard to bluff the others .
if sb bluffs me a lot , i take notes on him . The same if he tries to win with garbage against me ,
The story that you tell when you bluff is very important , i agree . Most of the times that i call other ones; bluffs is when they do not persuade me about the hand that they have , either very small bets (showing that they want to steal with minimum losses if they do not succeed ) or the opposite , crazy bets , overbets or all ins on the river , on the sight of some scare cards or scare board , when before that they didnt show any interest for the hand .
Since there’s little to really lose on either, I’ve found that bluffing is pretty pointless whenever you play low stakes for real money or especially on a free site unless you are playing against players who know what they’re doing. Which is very rare on Replay, except on higher stake games. And even then…
You really have to present self-confidence at the table.
Actually, you have to Exhude Self-Confidence where most of the players think you’re full of BS but you’re not.
Just don’t try it with me because there’s another saying that goes "You never ever BS another BS’er.
Great topic, as it happens to be an area of my game that I am working on.
Many times, even though I suspect a bluff, “fold” is my default option when there are no notes on villain. It is great fun bluff-catching though, as so many players try to bluff. I am often shocked when I catch people bluffing with their entire stack if they have an ace blocker or you check a monster flop to fake a weak hand. There are so many aggressive players online that one just has to wait for others to hand them their stack.
Bluffing is indeed a great art to have in your arsenal and should be used sparingly!
What is your best spot to bluff?
On the turn. By that time I know what I have and don’t have and watching most player’s limping in late.
I rarely give advice on actual poker related matters, I’m not good enough, but I do like a good bluff :), I reckon there is no point bluffing early in tournaments, but you really have to steal pots and most importantly the blinds at the later stages particularly near the bubble or at the final table, mostly when you can take a bit of advantage of smaller stacks, I’ve been on the receiving end myself enough times lol, most folk want some sort of return near the end so you can take advantage of that if you have the chips, same go’s if you go all in with your smaller stack near the bubble but you have to pick your moment for that one against the right person, not against a few people though, often if you are in the big blind and everyone has folded, the small blind will try and steal your blind off you, I often go all in then or at least a large re raise.
Also a nice big bluff from the button if everyone has limped.
GL
Mark
Hello, in freerolls I don’t like to bluff, maybe in pre FT or at the final table, in micro limit tournaments I think it’s the same.
Hi @je_amm , and welcome to the Forum. If you don’t like to bluff, play your personal preferences in the games. I don’t like to either but there are times when it is needed. GL at the tables!!
Bluffing is an integral part of the game of Poker. Wether you do it or not is up to you but you must integrate it in your game to be any kind of successful. There are free articles on the internet on how to master this .
For the most part, bluffing on Replay is pointless, unless you can find a game with players who think on a higher level about the game. At most stakes players aren’t really paying much attention, and are generally only focusing on their own hands, so your play goes over their heads. Plus, they don’t have anything to lose by calling you down. Even microstakes online isn’t that great of an idea to bluff.
Daniel Negreanu once said:
“People don’t bluff as much as you think. Pros make money by playing big pots with the best hand, not by throwing bluffs left and right”.
And I agree with it totally!
Bluffing in poker is part of the game, but it is a poker skill that, like all other poker skills, requires study and practice. The most important thing to consider is that your bluff should tell a convincing story to the opponent. Otherwise, the good players will call the bluff, and constantly getting called by others in wrong bluffs is a recipe for disaster.