Pretending you have a big decision to make

Ok so you have been bluffing from the get go. You bought the button with a good size preflop raise into a limped pot with the 7 9 of clubs or whatever, the flop has missed you and everybody checks. You bet pot and get one call, you figure he's got the flush draw. Fire again on the turn and again just calls. River appears to be a blank but suddenly he's all in. You're folding, but the question is: do you think about it?

I've never really considered this before. Whenever I bluff at a pot and get played back at so I have to fold, I have always put on a good 30-45 second show of having a tough laydown to make before folding, since I don't want anyone to know I was bluffing. But then I got to thinking... could I be encouraging people to bluff at me more often this way? Perhaps folding without a second thought and admitting you had jack and it's no big deal is better? Or is there a happy medium between the two and you should try to mix up pretending to think and insta-folding?

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It's ALL about hourly rate. /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

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[jman220]

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Ok so you have been bluffing from the get go. You bought the button with a good size preflop raise into a limped pot with the 7 9 of clubs or whatever, the flop has missed you and everybody checks. You bet pot and get one call, you figure he's got the flush draw. Fire again on the turn and again just calls. River appears to be a blank but suddenly he's all in. You're folding, but the question is: do you think about it?

I've never really considered this before. Whenever I bluff at a pot and get played back at so I have to fold, I have always put on a good 30-45 second show of having a tough laydown to make before folding, since I don't want anyone to know I was bluffing. But then I got to thinking... could I be encouraging people to bluff at me more often this way? Perhaps folding without a second thought and admitting you had jack and it's no big deal is better? Or is there a happy medium between the two and you should try to mix up pretending to think and insta-folding?

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It's ALL about hourly rate. /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

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Live this matters very little because most people are just not paying that kind of attention, and really don't care. Most poker decisions are made almost immediately anyway. Online this matters exactly zero.

[jman220]

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Ok so you have been bluffing from the get go. You bought the button with a good size preflop raise into a limped pot with the 7 9 of clubs or whatever, the flop has missed you and everybody checks. You bet pot and get one call, you figure he's got the flush draw. Fire again on the turn and again just calls. River appears to be a blank but suddenly he's all in. You're folding, but the question is: do you think about it?

I've never really considered this before. Whenever I bluff at a pot and get played back at so I have to fold, I have always put on a good 30-45 second show of having a tough laydown to make before folding, since I don't want anyone to know I was bluffing. But then I got to thinking... could I be encouraging people to bluff at me more often this way? Perhaps folding without a second thought and admitting you had jack and it's no big deal is better? Or is there a happy medium between the two and you should try to mix up pretending to think and insta-folding?

[ QUOTE ]
It's ALL about hourly rate. /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

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Live this matters very little because most people are just not paying that kind of attention, and really don't care. Most poker decisions are made almost immediately anyway. Online this matters exactly zero.

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Also, if you're a winning player, any slight slight slight +EV you might get from some sort of "table image" is outweighed by the -EV impact you get from wasting time. This is even more true if you are playing a timepay game. And don't ever do this in limit, thats just obnoxious.

[csuf_gambler]

don't waste peoples time please

Hey, sorry geez. It doesn't seem so unreasonable to assume, though, that if I pay attention to these things, someone else is paying attention also...*shrug*

[shant]

Whenever Phil Ivey is caught in a bluff, he doesn't sit around and count his chips and think and shuffle his cards, he just folds very fast.

[goofball]

I don't there's anything wrong with pausing for like, 4-8 seconds.

[Bob T.]

Look at the board, peek at your cards, fold. It should take about that long.

[smartalecc5]

Ten seconds max. I agree with the previous 2 users. Look at your cards, pause for a couple seconds, fold.

[tek]

When people do that at my table (live NL) I ask the dealer how much time "we" are allowed...

I don't look at my cards, but I do wait about 5 seconds.

[squallA964]

I don't give my opponents the satisfaction of thinking that I might have laid down a big hand or had a tough decision, whether I was bluffing to begin with or I had a big hand. I try to take the same amount of time every single time I fold, and say "nice hand." If they were bluffing themselves, many times they'll get cocky and usually they'll try it again and I'll bust them.

The ONLY time I take longer than usual is in a multi-way pot with 3-4 other people or so, and I have a really good hand, and I'm deciding whether I'm folding it or I have the best hand and can go All-In over everybody. I would never think for an overly long time and then just call. I'm either raising or folding.

These are both for live games, pausing for a long time on the internet doesn't really matter, it doesn't affect what people think about the hand.

[theben]

interesting question

[CourtesyFlush]

It all depends on your style. If you are a very active player, bluffing more than your fair share, act like you had a good hand and fold. If you rarely bluff, fold quickly or show your cards so they know you were bluffing. Do whatever benefits your image.

So far the most predominant message seems to be to fold quickly. I think to get more where I was thinking with this I should specify a NL game, when attempting a very large bluff involving a significant change in stack one way or another. In other words, how often do you try to save face in these spots and dont' tell me any pro player out there has 'never' done this, that gave me a good laugh:)