Thanks for your frank analysis. You are right that my most likely
attempt to outplay people are against those I know really well. I
guess I have a higher level of confidence, since I know so much about
their play, but you are quite right to point out these are the people
who are most likely to figure out what I'm doing.
I am somewhat amazed to hear that you have removed pure bluffs from
your game entirely. I stopped long ago in limit, but in NL it seems
to me I have to develop this talent of "playing the player" and being
able to make these kinds of moves against a player when they have
heavily defined their hand early on (as Dan did with his $20 preflop
raise).
But, you've been playing poker more seriously and better than I have
over the past year or two. Do you really think that the pure bluff
against strong players isn't sometimes necessary to maintain positive
EV? Or is it just a game selection question: avoid games that have
mostly strong players?
As to whether these have seeped into my game regularly, the answer is
"far from it". I don't try this sort of thing very often (I can think
of only one other time in the last six months), but I should probably
reconsider entirely who I am trying it against.
As to your point of "late in the hand", I agree with you. I guess I
rarely see such spots, because of the necessity for every action to
add up. I find I'm rarely in situations where my actions on the
first few streets allow me to reasonably represent a hand that would
now be the required one to convince the other player to fold, say, top
pair, good kicker. I am curious: how does this end up working out for
you? How can you suddenly change your play late in the hand and still
convince the other player that you had the "draw", "overcard" or
whatever it is you are representing.
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Date: 2006-02-24 19:07 (UTC)Thanks for your frank analysis. You are right that my most likely attempt to outplay people are against those I know really well. I guess I have a higher level of confidence, since I know so much about their play, but you are quite right to point out these are the people who are most likely to figure out what I'm doing.
I am somewhat amazed to hear that you have removed pure bluffs from your game entirely. I stopped long ago in limit, but in NL it seems to me I have to develop this talent of "playing the player" and being able to make these kinds of moves against a player when they have heavily defined their hand early on (as Dan did with his $20 preflop raise).
But, you've been playing poker more seriously and better than I have over the past year or two. Do you really think that the pure bluff against strong players isn't sometimes necessary to maintain positive EV? Or is it just a game selection question: avoid games that have mostly strong players?
As to whether these have seeped into my game regularly, the answer is "far from it". I don't try this sort of thing very often (I can think of only one other time in the last six months), but I should probably reconsider entirely who I am trying it against.
As to your point of "late in the hand", I agree with you. I guess I rarely see such spots, because of the necessity for every action to add up. I find I'm rarely in situations where my actions on the first few streets allow me to reasonably represent a hand that would now be the required one to convince the other player to fold, say, top pair, good kicker. I am curious: how does this end up working out for you? How can you suddenly change your play late in the hand and still convince the other player that you had the "draw", "overcard" or whatever it is you are representing.