I'm not in the 1% of NL players that should try to play anything other than Basic Push Monsters strategy...but I try to do it sometimes and gain experience.

Guess what always burns me ? Yep..calling a huge River bet from some guy who just called my 1/2 pot bets all the way down, and no draws in sight. "But I don't want to be bluffed" damn that causes me a ton of $$$.
However, sometimes I"ll see others pick a bluff off...just not me.

So my question for good NL Players:

Online Low Limit NL.
Absent any reads (guy hasn't shown any bluffs in 20 hands, lets say)

You have TPTK (boy, I'm a donk)...

I'd give more details of betting, but don't want discussion on "you should riase more/less/limp preflop..because I don't think that's the point. But if it's important let me know.

And you are heads up after flopping TPTK and betting 3/4 the pot. No draws. Turn is Blank and you bet 1/3 pot (no draws)...get called. River pairs a flop card (not yours) you bet 1/3 pot again...Now Villan raises the pot....So you get about 2.25:1 on the call. Obvious I'm beat. So of course I call. :roll:


So forget about my donkish play....can you give guidlines on bluff preventing, or bluff spotting, or "if you have less than trips..on a paired board..never call any raises" kinda stuff....

Why the pride (huh?) of not being bluffed keeps me calling baffles the mind.

I like to often check a scary river with a vulnerable holding like TPTK OOP, it keeps the pot size down, making less of a bluff for you to call. Also gives him more motive to bluff, since you completely stopped, whereas if you bet out, its harder for him to bluff it, so you're probably calling a legitimate hand more.

I will say it does depend on the read of your opponent, a lot. I've come to deciding almost every play depends on the read of your opponent, so I get bored of reading hands without any stats on villian. Since I've been running my live tracker all week, I've made a lot more, every marginal situation just becomes so much easier, when you know your against a LAG or TAG or passive, etc.

Anyway...

You can almost always fold if a passive player bluffs you. They just basically never bluff. Run stats on your tables, its amazing.

Hmm, more vague calling bluff stuff I can think of....

The texture of the board. You would be more inclined to call a bluff on the board pairing the river if there were several obvious draws on flop that didn't hit on river, as villian would try to get back his money from chasing flush by bluffing you out of pot.

Generally I'm against the strategy of "blocker bets", I believe they are called. Its betting a small amount, because thats basically all you can call and should block them from bluffing you out of the pot. First of all, those bets look weak, if you have enough of a stack left, he can still bluff you. Secondly, I would much rather check and have him bluff.

Also, I'm usually not building up a pot that much with TPTK OOP. For this exact reason. You never know where you stand, it sucks

I hope my response wasn't too vague and crappy. I wish I could pull an example out because I know I called a decent bet on river today against a LAG, but it was easy because flush was obvious draw and didn't get there, if I wasn't too lazy to find that hand, then I would post it.

GL calling bluffs at your tables, as you know though, don't go overboard being the sheriff.

To be honest, I don't think I know too many villains that raise bluff on the river. I think it's an incredibly hard move to pull off. Plenty will bluff bet if you check. Check/call is often a lot easier. If they have it, they usually won't bet too much because they want a call. If they don't...well...you've picked them off.

Personally, I don't find there to be as much money in picking off bluffs at lower limits. I'll still do it every now and then against certain opponents, but it's much easier to just play ABC.

winner.

if you bet 3/4 the pot on the flop, i'd keep it up in the range on the turn. unless it's a scare card. betting less give them odds to chase and hopefully you are playing a game that gets respect from others.

I alway try to keep the pressure on when I'm playing no limit and I recommend you do as well.

Weak bets tend to get raised more than strong bets, not saying to always bet the pot, but if you come across a player who loves to raise, well you can be assured that they will when you weak lead.

But again, check out that quote. follow it.

Another thing, since I don't use pokertracker, what I do to get reads is this. After every hand that is showndown I like to check HH and see who is limping what, where, and betting what and how much.

You don't need to do this for everyone at the table, but by doing this you can quickly get a good read on most at the table. I assume PT makes this much easier, but for me, I learn more when I write, and when I write specific things someone has done it sticks with me a lot more than reading a stat.

I still do this with limit, but in a no limit game, getting down your opponents hand ranges and styles is a great help.

- Jordan