How to beat a Bluffer?

Bluffing is essential in the arsenal of winning poker players. If you never bluff, it will be very tough to be a winning player in the long term! Having said that, some players really overdo it with the bluffing. Raising 80% of the hands preflop, check-raising flops, overbetting rivers…the bluffer just doesn’t seem to fold. As it is much tougher to play against a bluffer then to play against a weak-tight player, I decided to write this article on how to beat a bluffer. If you still don’t know how to cope with a bluffer after this article, it might be a better to play video poker or another game without bluffing .

How to not beat a bluffer?

As I am quite the bluffer myself I have seen many examples of people who cope with bluffers the totally wrong way. Especially in live poker, most people -even on the higher stakes- deal with bluffers the wrong way. Let’s first take a look at a table at the World Series of Poker of 2009. The whole table is dealing with the ultra-agressive Lex Veldhuis in a totally wrong way:

If you didn’t feel like watching the video (you should, it’s great), Veldhuis’ opponents just keep folding and folding. The mistake here is obvious; you just can’t keep folding against a notorious bluffer.

Many players adopt a strategy of waiting for a monster and slowplay it because they think the bluffer will keep firing. Will this sometimes might be the case, most bluffers are agressive but not stupid. If you didn’t play a hand for two hours, the bluffer probably hears alarm bells ringing when you even call a flop bet.

Another mistake I have seen people making is 3-betting a player without a plan. One year ago I played a live cash game in a local casino and I was bored. I started raising literally every hand. After half an hour people finally started to adapt but not really in the right way. People started re-raising me but when I re-raised them back they were folding saying things like ‘I thought you were bluffing again’ or ‘I just can’t call you’. If you are not ready to risk a lot of chips it is probably not the best decision to raise in the first place.

How you can beat a bluffer

In the last paragraph you have read what not to do. Now let’s go over some things you cán do. Starting with the first point: if someone is bluffing a lot the value of hands go up. Against certain players it is even better to throw Ace-Queen in the muck after a single raise. Against a bluffer AQ is a monster, so treat it that way. Don’t just fold the flop if you missed, keep thinking about what you can beat and what your plan is on future streets.

About 3 or 4-betting the bluffer: Don’t do it without a plan and get ready to risk a lot of chips. There is no shame in 3-betting the maniac with 7-2 with the plan of folding to a reraise (some maniacs actually fold pretty easy to 3-bets), but it ís bad to 3-bet Ace-Queen and then fold it to a 4-bet. Like I said in the first paragraph, if you can’t stand the heat you can better play a game of video poker in an internet casino. But hey, man up and give that bluffer some action!