Catching a bluffer - PokerTraining.org

Catching a bluffer
Adjusting to your opponents - part 1/3

to watch your body, maybe you begin to sweat or your whole behavior starts to reveal something about your hand. You have to physically move your chips into the pot while keeping your hands under control and after all that is done, your opponents will sit right next to you trying to figure out what you really have. Online, all you have to do is make one move with your mouse. It only takes you one click to make that decision while being protected by the surroundings of your home. Because bluffing is so easy and you don´t see anybody sweat, shake or laugh hysterically, I would like to give you some advice on how to detect that somebody might be trying to bluff you.

1)   The importance of somebody´s image

First and foremost let me get this straight for everybody who´s interested. This article is directed towards starters and players who didn´t have much success playing Poker in the past. Since those guys better not play on high levels, I basically focus on the aspects of playing against bad and average competition. Good players don´t make most if any of these mistakes! If a strong player wants to bluff you, you probably won´t even notice it and if you do, you´ll be under such pressure that you´ll have big trouble to call. The only way you have a chance of detecting a great player´s bluff is by acquiring as much information and experience as you possibly can.

However that already leads to the first aspect you have to consider: Your opponents´ images (for more about the importance of image at the table, please check our article about it). The big question is how have your opponents conducted themselves in the past? Who did you catch bluffing before, who is overly aggressive and who tried to steal a lot of pots? As I mentioned before, online Poker is being played within the environment of your own home, nobody monitors you in person and your body cannot reveal the truth your mind wants to hide. Weak players usually feel extremely secure at home leading them to think that a change of behavior is unnecessary. Of course that´s totally wrong and your first shot at being a step ahead of your opponents. If somebody previously accumulated a bluffer´s image, a bluff is more likely to happen in the future. In case one of your opponents played extremely “tight” before, the probability of a bluff decreases.

Finding out that one of your opponents is constantly bluffing is one thing, calling him still represents something else. It´s not your task to be the sheriff on the table and to punish guys for playing aggressively, additionally it´s not in your best interest if you want to retaliate in case you have been bluffed before. Some people feel personally offended when somebody bluffs them and maybe even shows his hand, others think their game is superior to others´ if they pull off as many moves as possible. For your own best interest, forget about that. Getting bluffed is part of the game, all you can do is take a precise note about it, draw your conclusions and pick your spots when you want to strike back. Think about that; the only player that´ll never fall for a bluff is the “calling-station”, guiding us to the million $ question: Do you really want to be a calling-station?

2)   Try to detect your opponents´ patterns

Paying attention to somebody´s image is extremely important and strongly connected to uncovering your opponents´ patterns. Your goal has to find out whether or not your rivals have some favorite spots to start a bluff. The key to identifying a certain behavior is by keeping track of your opponents´ moves by taking notes (for more information about the aspect of observing your opponents and taking notes regarding their behavior, please check our article) and evaluating them.

One possible pattern could be that one of your rivals always makes a continuation-bet on the flop after raising pre-flop. Simply check how often you are happy with the flop after you raised before and you´ll see that the detection of such a pattern opens up a lot of possibilities for you.

3)   Pay attention to everything that happens on the table

Sometimes certain players take very long when they try to bluff, others try to act quickly in order to make you think that their hand is so strong that they cannot even wait to place a bet because they seem to be so excited. However, taking the time somebody takes before making a decision into consideration is something I wouldn´t recommend doing. You don´t know what the other guy is doing in front of his screen, maybe he watches TV, checks his e-mails or plays on more than just one table.

One thing that might interest you though is the move I like to call “Often raising, sometimes showing”. That´s the oldest trick in the book, so please do me and yourself a favor and don´t fall for it, rather think about using it against your opponent. Now, what do I mean? When I speak of “Often raising, sometimes showing”, I think of hyper-aggressive players that like to raise every second hand that has been dealt to them. Of course, raising with so many hands means those guys have to play trash hands aggressively, thereby acquiring the image of a complete maniac. As you should know by now, with such an image, nobody on the table is going to respect those moves anymore. Of course, that is not in the interest of these maniacs (who wants to be called after raising with 84o?), so they decide to work on their image by showing their hand, in case they raised with a strong one.

Now, let me give you an easy example: Such a maniac has been dealt five different hands: 84o, 52s, K3o, AJs and Q4o. Because he´s overly aggressive, he raises with each and every one of them. In order to work on his image, the only hand he´s about to show is the lone reasonable hand, which would be AJs.

If you experience such a move you should be aware that your opponent is trying to work on his image in order to make you continue to fold to his bets and raises in the future. Again, this is the oldest trick in the book, so make sure you don´t fall for it.

Read part 2/3