How Necessary is Bluffing?

Title says it all; Minus the appropriate C-bet, how important is bluffing to a long term winning player?

Depends on your style of play and the level that you are playing.

At the low limits ($25NL) where there are lots of calling stations, I rarely bluff. Instead, I concentrate on identifying bluffs and taking their $. I found it to be a lot more profitable to call bluffs than make them. At the higher limits, this is more difficult because many of those guys play a made hand just like they play a bluff. So, my advice is to just play "ABC" poker and don't worry about bluffing. In other words, there is no need to induce mistakes at the lower limits by bluffing since the donks make the mistakes for you. Besides, by definition, a donk "thinks you are always bluffing". So why bluff and get called by a donk?

Oh, I am not saying I never bluff....I just pick and choose my spots very carefully. Lastly, I am maintaining a 11PTBB/100 win rate @$25NL so you can win sucessfully without making bluffs a big part of your game. I think a lot of my win rate comes from donks who are "bluffing machines"...they get me for a few small pots and then I de-stack them.

its important against smart player, not important against bad players

Originally Posted by gabe

its important against smart player, not important against bad players

Not important and not advisable against bad players.

I would like to add that you should bluff according to your situation and who you are playing against...... In a tourney, you probably should semi-bluff a lot more than you would in a ring game..... Reason being that once the blinds have gone up a few levels and people are stealing, you want to be able to semi-bluff and steal yourself some blinds.... Always remember if you are going to bluff that you should be willing and able to leave the hand alone if you get too much coming action coming back at you

what is a bluff?

I categorize 3 kinds of bluff.

1. A soft bluff is when you currently have very little (perhaps middle pair) but have 2 good drawing opportunities (flush or OESD). This gets ugly because you likely won't win with what you have, so you want to pull in a small pot without showdown. But you can, for low price, continue drawing if called.

2. A bluff is when you have something mediocre (again middle pair) but have one mediocre drawing option (like a gutshot). This one you want to pull the pot without a showdown.

3. A hard bluff is "you have nothing, you have no potential, and you MUST pull pot without showing."