Power Hand Series #7 – Don’t Bluff a Bad Player
One of the worst feelings in poker is making it to the river with no hand at all. Maybe you had a royal flush draw. Maybe you had a double belly buster straight draw. But the fact is, the river card came down, and you’re stuck with no hand and not much of an option. So what do you do?? If you’ve set yourself up right, a big bluff might be the trick to turn your train wreck of a hand around and take down a reasonable pot.
But here is where the hand only gets worse. That player that continued putting money into the pot only had middle pair, and either didn’t see, or didn’t know enough to fold his crappy mid-pair. So, he will call your huge river bet, and walk away with your hard earned pot.
How do you Avoid a bad Bluff?
So, should you have known better? Should you have dropped your hand much earlier, or made your bets a lot bigger on the flop and turn betting rounds? The answer is probably not. When you come up against an unpredictable or loose player, try not to get steaming or lose your patience and start trying to outplay that player. Wait for a strong hand, and pray for them to hit their mid pair and let them lose their money to you!
In online poker I’ve seen calling stations tilt really great players. The good players lose a medium sized hand, start going nuts in the chat, telling the calling station “I’m gonna put you out of this tournament!” and typically end up really trying to target these bad players. But the reality in this situation is this: you can’t blame a player for not knowing when they should fold. A calling station is a calling station. It’s what they do. You’re more of a donkey if you try to pull of a huge bluff knowing that you’re likely going to get called.
So, let these players do what they do, and bet into them with a huge hand. And if your hand doesn’t materialize, make sure you know your opponent and maybe..just fold.
