Coralpocker.com – How often should you bluff?
Category: Poker
www.coralpocker.com – When examining this question, we should firstly make it clear that there are many different types of play which could be considered bluffing, and not all are as risky as the others. Take the ‘Semi Bluff’ for example, this involves a player trying to force another player out of the pot, whilst having a big draw which could hit the board and save you, if you happen to be called. If I find myself in this position, I always like to make a semi bluff at the pot, and feel it is a profitable play, albeit a slightly risky one.
Making outright large bluffs with no safety net if you get called, are plays which should not be used often I feel. You can pick up relatively small pots several times doing this, but you only need to be called once to do serious damage to your chipstack. The most important thing of course, is to use your preliminary bets and those of your opponent, to form an opinion on when it is right to press the issue with a bluff of some sort, and when to back down.
Bets which are made to test the strength of your opponents are not really bluffs in my books, although in some sense you could say they qualify. You are effectively putting a small amount of chips on the line to hopefully push your opponent out of the pot, but if you don’t, their call or reraise will tell you a lot about the hand you are facing.
Some players will invariably choose to bluff more often than others, but in my opinion, the only bluffs you can use regularly, are semi bluffs and tester bets.
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