Hold ‘Em: Don’t bluff in low limit
There’s a long list of things you can throw out there where the answer would be, “What’s the point in doing that?” You know when the answer to something is a question, it’s rhetorical to begin with. After recent play, I can definitively conclude that trying to bluff in a low-stakes, limit game of Hold ‘Em is not only pointless, but it’s counterproductive. And I’ll explain what I mean right now.
First off, virtually nobody at the $1/$2 or $2/$4 games on Party Poker is there to read you and take your car payment. They’re probably there because they’re bored or wanted to get close to the big screen TV’s playing golf without having to cram in at the bar. These people are usually just like you. They think they know poker enough to “compete,” but aren’t interested in really gambling at one of the riskier tables. Not a big deal, nothing wrong with that. But if you know that, you should know nobody cares if you’re trying to bluff. Nobody is getting scared off by a $4 bet in an actual casino. It ain’t happening. You’re wasting your effort.
Now here’s why this is counterproductive. Since you know nobody is dropping out from a power move (if they do fold mid-hand, it probably just took them long enough to realize they’re hand sucks and/or they didn’t catch what they wanted on the turn), the only thing you really do by trying to bluff is add more money to a pot you’re eventually going to lose. If you do the simple math for a full table of nine, odds are the blinds are going to stay in, and at least one other person besides you…which is still less than half the table. After the flop, maybe one will drop out, leaving you still with three opponents to beat with your rags. Like I said, it ain’t going to happen. And in the end, you just feed your money into someone else’s chip stack.
Betting strong is fine, if you at least have a high pair or something you can sneak in and win with…or if you start with a bluff but are playing to a straight or flush, at least there’s hope, but don’t try to bully players at a low-limit game. You’ll probably just get yourself booed off the table.