Poker Perambulation

That’d probably mean you’re sitting on a bluff. Yes, I do that on occasion too. Unlike some though, I don’t try to make it a livelihood. It a selective, situational activity. The goal isn’t to outjism the other guy. The goal is to keep people a bit more honest and try to compensate a bit for the blinds and antes.

There are players at the stud tables that must bet their big door card. There are flop players who always bet position. The word always is the killer. That is a killer because predictability is deadly. These are the people that win small pot after small pot and then pay off the better players in big ones. They’re a decent player’s bread and butter.

The thing about real bluffing at a stud table is that you don’t just fire a single bullet. The typical way I do it is a check-raise. There’s almost always going to be two subsequent bullets. I’m not going to do this against your typical 4-5 limpers. Those who like to bluff do it at the darnedest times. They got rats showing and they bet. Just how often are you making your set with those cards? Nice when it happens with a table full of limpers that will call and call. But, one has to figure that distribution isn’t favoring a player that often. Even those on a rush don’t get filled up on every rat hand.

I may be on a naked bluff at times. That is infrequent. The bluff is going to at least have good overs or some kind of flush or straight in the back door or a small pair and a premium. It isn’t going to be directed at the guy that won against the other bluffer with his rat pair. Although, I’ll occasionally do that when I’ve an image that will back it up. I like it to be when I’ve been used by him but recently shown down a solid hand that I’d bet in similar fashion.

The thing about the true loose-aggressive is that they are basically insecure. They are often the kid that got bullied or the kid that bullied. For the bullied one it is a chance to get back at a world that has mistreated him. For the true bully, it is just a continuation of his amoral jog through life. You can often identify which one is which. The true bully is the one who’ll raise you back. You don’t let him do it. If you don’t own or think he’ll keep position, I tend to call and then lead out. If you go to four-bets you need him have to lead. You don’t have information adequate information when forced to start the next round. For the same price, you can fire on the next street and get more information.

Bluffing is dangerous. To do it well, you commit a number of big bets to the operation. That means you’d hope to win often enough to show a profit. When the donk had a hand or your crap got to the river missing its draw, it still has some redeeming value. If you are a true tight-aggressive, you’ve just done some great misdirection that will help you get those strong hands paid off. Tracker software never catches that side of the play.

There is another type of bluff that is more used. That’s the honest one. Or at least it is as honest as a bluff gets. They’re cheap one from late position. At stud I usually will complete with more modest holdings. With an ace or king up, I’ll mix in the call and bet the next street. The idea is to mix it up a bit and give the impression of the possible slow play. That works at two levels – making the hands you are really slow playing more profitable.

The goal of my bluffing is at two levels. The biggest may be to keep people more honest against me. It along goes with sometimes defending one’s blinds. If you are always easy with weaker holding that word always is again a killer. You must occasionally mix it up without the stellar hand that gives comfort. Bluffing is part of that.

This isn’t something you do a lot. And, it sure doesn’t work as well – or maybe at all – on the hi/lo games where a chop get you bupkus against people happy to play their weak high or bad eight. What the play does is keep your game from one of the less profitable situations of appearing the rock. You can make a consistent small profit as the rock. At a super aggressive table, that may be one’s best option. You can grind out your two or three big blinds an hour playing tight-passive. But, it isn’t a lot of fun and fun is a part of the experience. It just can’t be a too costly one.

ADDENDUM:

I mentioned I’d downloaded the Firefox beta and thought I liked it. Well, I can confirm that and in spades. It has been 100% stable. The new features are impressive and very useful. It is a major upgrade to features along with a nice speed jump. If you are currently using Firefox, you can install it in a second subdirectory and use whichever you choose. The new version will find and use your info while allowing that info to be shared with the old version. And, is brings added security to the table too.

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If that wasn’t geeky enough, take a look at the Map of the Internet. It is based on IP addressing and might be confusing to some.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 11:35 am and is filed under Poker Thoughts. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.