I was playing poker today and following the tips on this sight and many other, I decided that a good bluff from the button was in order. I put in 4x the bb and get a couple of callers but mostly folders, prior to my raise the pot was unraised. The flop came down rags and it was checked to me so I made another healthy bet a fold and a call followed. Turn comes and we've got all 4 suits on the board with no 3 cards of a strait. Its checked to me so I put in a larger raise and get called. River comes and still rags, should I have raised again here? I did a very large raise and get called. I had ace high and lose to a pair of 4s.

First question is what could I have done to have made him fold, or was he just a habbitual caller? What needs to be fixed with my approach in this situation?

Secondly, after making these big bets, I'm left with a tiny stack. Normally when I get in this situation I like to camp until I hit AA or some other monster and try and go all in as quickly as possible until I get my stack built up again, but the game today started out full and then after my big beat a few players left and it was down to 4 people. I don't think you can camp on monsters in a short handed game as you would get knocked out by the blinds coming back to you so quickly. What is the best way to try and rebuild your stack at this point? Should I check if bb and call with sb and fold otherwise until I get my hand?

Thanks a lot for the help.

Regards,

Cory