Bluffing 101 (and help for the mid-stages)

[suited_ace]

I've been playing my tournaments ok, but the phase that always kills me is after the blinds get to 100-200. I always seem to lose a good chunk of my stack trying a bluff (or a pot steal) that just won't work.

I only do this when I'm heads up, but it's REALLY not working. I have two questions for you:

1. Early in the tourney I play TAG in the first 5 positions and LAG in the Button, CO and CO+1. I don't bluff at all. This seems to work very well for me. What should I change from this to the mid-stage play?

2. When you bluff, what are the things you take in consideration before doing it? What kind of situations are you looking for to bluff, etc, etc... ?

Thanks.

[ZBTHorton]

I think you may be putting a little to much value in the bluff....especially in online poker.

[suited_ace]

Yeah, I'm getting that... The hard way, but I'm getting that.

[JeffM]

Let me first qualify myself by saying that even though I haven't posted here often, I have won 2 large tourney's (over 15k prize)in the past 4 months as well as 4 (2-5th's). I play all multi tourneys and all over $100 buy ins. The bluff will not get you anywhere in online multi's. The best strategy online is to be very tight until about the final 7% of the tourney contestants remain. This is the time to be very aggressive b/c everyone is afraid for their life at this point. This is right around the bubble. The players that are very aggressive between 7% left and 3% left are very succesful b/c the blinds are large and people want to survive to the money. The later in the tourney you are the more aggressive you should be. You will get knocked out of a lot of tourneys prematurely, but you will cash BIG enough times to make a large profit. Good players will go dry for a while in these multi's for long periods but make enough 1st or 2nd cashes to more than make up for it. I guess my best advice would be to stay very tight for the first n2.5 or 3 hours and then open it up.

[suited_ace]

Ok, basically I'm opening up too fast... That could very well be the reason. I'll try one week with absolutely no bluffing until the bubble and see how it works. I'll keep you posted.

[kmvenne]

I can't help bluffing an opponent or two when the situation calls for it, but I think you need a lot of factors to end up right. I wouldn't bluff early, but in the mid stages like you are asking about, anyone you have a good read on can be bluffed. I don't look for boards or situations as much as betting patters that seem to be weak, then I throw a raise on the flop and a continuation on the turn if they come along with some pair or something. More of my game is inducing bluffs though by acting weak tight at times, so I'm hardly a bluffing expert.

[Pulplife]

This is more of an addition to the other posts than a complete answer, but I always concider the opponents stack size relative to the blinds.

I try to focus on the players with around 12-15x the BB. If they have much less (10x or below), they may be forced to go all-in. Much more (say 20x) they may play back at you.

The mid-stack players are perfect, and given the right timing will often lay there missed/drawing hands down.

Also, MUCH of this depends on your table image, their playing style, the board, the stage of the tournament, etc.

So their is no straight forward or easy answer, but at least keep those mid-stacks in sight when you do go for the bluff.

Good luck,

Pulp /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[djhoneybear]

Here are some tips for bluffing that I've found helpful:

Its best to bluff players who limped in - this often means they have a speculative hand.

If the players you are bluffing have limped in and an Ace falls don't bluff unless you have position.

Being last to act makes bluffing much easier. Make sure your bet looks similar to a bet you would make with a hand (don't think firing out a few chips is going to work).

The bluff-raise seems to be the most profitable form of the bluff. Lets say you are holding QJo and are last to act against two players. Blinds are $100-$200 and there is a total of $700 in the pot. The flop comes 77K. Player one bets $200 and player two folds. Now player one more than likely holds nothing or a King. If he flopped trips he would probably have checked and gone for a check raise. If you come over the top with a raise to $500 he will probably fold his hand. This kind of play happens several times for me in every tournament I've been in and has worked around 80% of the time. I'm risking $500 to win $900 which means this play only needs to work a little more than 50% of the time to be profitable.

[Damian UK]

try these two posts for a different perspective - the second one is more about stealing

hope they help

cheers

Damian

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=890506&page=&view=&sb =5&o=&vc=1

http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=&Number=903650&page=3& view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=

[Iconoclastic]

Many MTTs aren't long enough to wait until the bubble to open up. The blinds go up so fast that you need to double up several times just to make it ITM. My advice is to not bluff unless you have a semibluff going, or a sure read.

[mcteecho]

Not to doubt your credentials, Jeff, but online MTTs almost invariably pay the final 10%, so bubble play is at 15% to 10%, or maybe 20% to 10%. Why do you say it's 7% to 3%?