Stopping a bluff.

[ZManODS]

When you encounter a player who bluffs to little you would want to stop them from bluffing at all, right? Well what happens if you semi-bluff-raise into this player and he does bluff-reraise you back but with nothing. TOP says to fold against his raise because its too good a chance he has you beat. But what happens when he does try to bluff one time and you lay it down? All you have done is encourage him to try to bluff at you and against no one else. Couldnt this be a horrible situation for you?

[Ginogino]

ZMan:
You'd think an "almost never" bluffer would catch on when that happened, but he almost never does. If they did catch on, then how long would it take before all of them would have bluffed and had it work at least once each. What mostly happens is they think that bluffing is a neat idea and they'll have to try it again, and then that thought evaporates and they go blindly back to business as usual.
Gino

[Inthacup]

When you encounter a player who bluffs to little you would want to stop them from bluffing at all, right?

Do you mean too much? If they bluff too little, then they're pretty straightforward and easy to read.


Well what happens if you semi-bluff-raise into this player and he does bluff-reraise you back but with nothing.

This isn't characteristic of a player who bluffs too little. If they've been showing nothing but strong hands, then you shouldn't be worrying about the bluff reraise. You should be worrying about jamming the pot into a made hand.


All you have done is encourage him to try to bluff at you and against no one else.

If this is the case, just tighten up, and wait until you get a strong hand. Then you can exploit his bluffing and have him pay off with crap.

[elysium]

yes. this is not a great situation to be in. and this is why you must try to reduce or increase the frequency of bluffs made by an opponent who bluffs with the right frequency. no, the book doesn't say to increase the frequency, but the book does instruct us to think on our feet. so in this situation, we will increase the frequency of this opponents bluffs. we start by folding here. o.k., now.....the next time you get into a hand with this opponent, try slowplaying. see if check calling interests him on the flop. then, check raise the turn and hit him again with a surprise check raise on the river. he will bet into you with ace high. now, you don't have to go for the river check-raise, but you might. it might work here in this one unique situation. then, go back to the original strategy of trying to reduce the times he bluffs. incidently, if he realizes what's happening and checks down the river, and he likely will, your attempting the check-raise twice in a row will weigh heavily on his future play. he won't forget about it and if you check-raise him early from then on, he likely will be more predictable. i don't know if he will go so far as allowing a free card to slide off, but....you never know.