Advertising Bluffs
Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Pocker
Advertising bluffs is not something which is done on a wide scale and some people even feel it rude to show someone you have bluffed them after they fold, but it isn’t really, you are effectively just giving them information which they are not necessarily entitled to, how they use it is their own choice. The main reason that anyone advertises a bluff is so that the opposing player knows you are trying to bluff people, and the aim then is to show them a strong hand when, as a consequence of this bluff advertising, they decide to call one of your big raises later on, thinking you are bluffing again. Often a player knows this is your aim however, and chooses not to call the next time either, I usually bluff them a second time and show it again, believe me it will begin to get under their skin after the second or third time and a tight player might begin to open up their play and make mistakes, just be careful that you tighten up your play at the right time and have a made hand to bust them with when they call.
I have used this successfully in the past in a local 30 player tournament, to unsettle the person widely considered to be the best player there, as well as setting him up for a fall later when he decided he was going to call what he thought was a bluff, I also was having the effect of causing him to mistrust his judgement, as I kept showing him his reads on me were wrong when he folded and I was bluffing. Although it does seem sometimes that players who advertise bluffs are just gloating, this is not the case, showing players that you are willing to bluff them repeatedly and effectively laying down the challenge to call you next time, is a perfectly legitimate way of getting a reaction from the ways in which your opponents are playing, causing them perhaps to open up their style of play a little, then punishing them with a big hand, or making them annoyed with themselves for not calling the bluff.
Either way, I feel it is an effective weapon to be able to psychologically unsettle an opponent in this way as I discovered in my local tournament, I came 1st beating the aforementioned very skilled player, heads up at the end on one occasion, I also came 2nd twice knocking the same player out earlier in the tournament both times, I always set out to tie him in knots when he was trying to read me, and advertising my bluffs was a big part of me becoming his nemesis at this weekly tournament. You don’t have to use such tactics of course, every player has their own style of play and some can achieve the same results by never showing their cards and leaving their opponents wondering all the time, the beauty of poker is of course that it?s entirely the individuals prerogative to express themselves and play their own style as they see fit.
Comments
Leave a Reply
