Establishing the bluff

[wayniac]

Ok so Im pretty new to poker.. usually preferring the thrills of sports betting. One major problem I'm having is that I suck at bluffing. I always seem to get found out despite my best efforts, and never fool anyone. A friend keeps on telling me that I must established the bluff first. What exactly does he mean by that? He just says that the key is patience but that doesnt really help much. Anyone got some advice for a poker newb? :unsure

[Run Dmc Vs Pat Nevin]

Re: Establishing the bluff Been thinking about this quite a bit myself. In the past I've been guilty of going for the all-in bluff to try and scare my opponent away. I've quickly learnt that this isn't the way to go. It sends out out a massive signal that you've no hand. A tactic I've found to work is to raise an amount that's "begging for a call." It gets your opponent thinking that you've got a great hand and are trying to milk it for all you can. I vaguely recall one Amercian commentator saying that according to the legendary Stu Unger you need to bluff at a pot twice to make it convincing. I kinda agree with that, although it is easy to get over-commited when you do it. Of course some people are just unbluffable. On low-stakes tables people will play to the river regardless of what they've got.

[PAULM03]

Re: Establishing the bluff I think the accepted wisdom ids that bluffing doesn't pay when playing internet poker, with the reasons being 2-fold: 1) People are more likely to call 2) It's more difficult to get a read on people, especially in low-stakes where there are a lot of loose canons who could be playing with anything. I tend to go along with this wisdom, although I am a complete novice myself it seems to serve me well. The onlytime I ever bluff is when I'm short stacked and the blinds are relatively high, starting to put pressure on my chips. I try to play as tightly as possible usually, and hope that someone will notice so that when I do bluff they're more likely to think I've got something.

[Valiant23]

Re: Establishing the bluff This is probably a very simple strategy, although it can be difficult to establish in the MTT environment because of table moves. Basically I establish myself first as a stright-shooter. If I make big raises I will probably get called by someone, as has been already said. Then when they see I made big raises because I have (almost) the nuts the next time it happens they may/should assume I've got good cards. This means that when I need to bluff people have to decide whether I still have good cards, which in my mind is the most important consideration. A strategy which has had me fooled is when a player goes all in for the first 3 hands. This tells me that they are loose, and eventually I will have better hole cards and call them. However they go quiet for a while, and it has happened that they have tried an all-in when I have an AKs. I gun for them, the cards get turned and I get no help by the board and get dumped on my backside by a pair of Q's. Another one is when you have good, but not made hole cards (KQs), the board comes and helps no one. When the turn comes I have gone all in immediately, in order to let everyone think that was THE card I need. It has worked on occasion, but it's failed too. Again, I am not very good at bluffing, and I'm interested to hear what others think, as my bluff is awful.

[wayniac]

Re: Establishing the bluff Thanks for the tips guys, anyone else have some pearls of wisdom?