I keep hearing mixed advice from "never bluff in 1/2...you can't bluff fish" - which I agree with, but I find there are plenty of talented and semi-thinking players at 1/2. Currently I rarely bluff or 3bet bluff preflop. I feel like I may be leaving money on the table.

So, how often should I be doing it? Obviously I know it is situational and read dependent. I know should I shouldn't 3bet bluff super tight players, or do it from early position, but what is your general strategy? I want to be able to mix it up with my TAG image so I can steal more pots. Any advice appreciated.

Bluffing is generally lighting money on fire, though a cbet on favorable boards is a good option when you are the PFR and miss, or if you limp/called and the board looks like one that missed everybody. I like to 3bet against deep stacks with suited connector type hands and random garbage once in a while.

By default, don't. However, sometimes you will get in situations where it can work. I never make total bluffs preflop, it is wasting money. However, 3 betting light occasionally can be OK if villains are deep and will lay down weak hands preflop or fold to a flop c-bet enough. At 1/2 I don't use weak aces for these bets because you will get called by a lot of weak but slighter better aces, medium connectors and medium to small pairs are better. The best ones to target here are the guys who like to limp/call wide but give up on flop if they don't hit fairly well because you represent a stronger hand after raising preflop.

Post flop bluffing is entirely situational, you need the right board and right villain. At 1/2 there are a lot of somewhat stationary villains that will call any reasonable bet and some unreasonable bets with any decent pair. Bluffing these guys is -EV. You need to pick out the half decent ones that can fold, and then hit them on the right board. Look for good situations, and don't try it very often if your trying to keep a tight clean image.

At 1/2 I go entire sessions without any bluffs because the situation was never good enough. There are 1/2 tables so stationary I even mostly give up on c-betting. I have played at 1/2 tables so stationary that river raises where getting called by 3rd pair. I have also played at 1/2 tables so nitty that raising 50% of hands preflop and c-betting all flops was profitable because villains never called with less then TPGK. 1/2 tables lean stationary but they wander all over the place and you have to adjust to the table.

What QuadJ wrote -- it's completely table/player dependent. Of course, it also depends on how they see you. I think as a 45-yr-old woman, I get away w/ it a little more

Against weak loose fit/fold Vs, I will 3 bet pf with pairs as low as 8's to iso HU. It's incredible value and you are still ahead a vast majority of time.
When you are comfortable with their playing style/ranges, you can c-bet/semi bluff with most hands because you know they are easily pushed off hands, and you can dash at any sign of strength.

BUT that all depends on who's on your table. I find a lot of time late a night, everyone kind of fall into a fit/fold rut. That's the best time to take advantage

Bluffing at 1/2 is not something to keep in the toolbox.

As someone said earlier, it's like setting money on fire.

Why not?
Basic example. SO easy to convince a 1/2 player that you have an ace on an ace-high board, and get them to fold kings.

this. 3 barrels...ehh no. If they called bottom pair on the flop they didnt get to the river to fold.

And totally V dependent. When you see the pfr lose his sh/t on a flop of A84r and mutters - just my luck - under his breath go ahead and bet it. And this happens like once a session. Expect to be shown KK/QQ face up. :-)

I dont know where you guys generally play or whatever but how you can say that bluffing at these limits isn't profitable is just madness....as long as you pick your opponent....there are plenty of grandpas out there who will fold anything less than tptk if you fire two streets....plenty of limp folders pre-flop.......the reason most people say 'dont bluff at these stakes' is because they are not understanding what they are representing and have a clouded judgement of there image at the table and how they are seen by others.....
For example if you just a standard 14/10 tag nit who called on in the co and the board comes 773 there is basically no chance you hit that board so by bluffing you represent absolutly nothing except 99-jj which you probably wouldn't be aggressive with anyway....
If you want a bluff to work you should really concentrate on examining your percieved range opposed to just the villans.....to ensure you can actually represent a range that a villan is likely to fold vs.

Its just about identifying spots. I think "don't bluff" is a good general statement for a BEGINNER. This is because we make most of our money at LLSNL by value betting against people that, as a general rule, call too wide. The first thing you need to do to have a good win-rate at LLSNL is learn how to value bet correctly.

This isn't as easy as people make it out to be. There are a lot of threads on here where people quite obviously are missing value and don't even consider value betting. So, it probably makes sense at first to focus all your energy on ensuring you are learning the most fundamental live poker skill.

That being said, if you are already a good winner in a game just based on your "value bet game" (which you 100% can be), if you are still blindly following this simple rule you are leaving money on the table.

There was actually a great example thread of a fairly common LLSNL situation that we should be 3betting a lot lighter and taking advantage of. When we are in position against a player who has a very narrow 3bet calling range but is opening something like AT+, KQ+, 88+. That isn't a very wide opening range, but so many LLSNL players are only calling a 3bet with JJ+/AK (especially OOP). This is a good spot to 3bet light for relatively free money (at least in the short-run, until they adjust).

An even better reason to do things like 3bet light is BECAUSE it causes our opponents to adjust. LLSNL players are really awful at adapting to aggressive play, especially light 3bets. They will start calling 3bets OOP to "catch you" with a weaker range. Then we are IP against someone who is just c/f a lot of flops.

That doesn't mean you should be manically 3betting everything. But there are a lot of good LLSNL spots to play aggressively and take people out of their comfort zones. They'll either shut down and stop tangling with you or start having to play bigger pots in spots they aren't familiar with. Either way is a win.

This isn't something I would recommend people go out and try. IMO its one of those questions that, if you have to ask, you shouldn't do it. With more experience, you'll learn what kinds of spots are profitable for aggressive play. Don't just go into a game with the mindset "I should be bluffing sometimes." Because there's no need to do so in order to be a winner at these levels.

Anybody who says "never bluff" has no concept of the theoretical basis of poker.

But, you don't usually have to balance your 3betting range at 1/2.

I would disagree that you know it is situational and read dependent. Otherwise, you wouldn't have put this in the same paragraph.

You can beat 1/2 without ever 3betting light or bluffing. Most people end up 3betting light and bluffing too often at 1/2, not too little. Keep in mind the ideal is that the villain suspects you might be bluffing, but can't possibly call you.

3 bet bluffing is really only useful with deeper stacks say 150bb and up. Problem with doing this is live poker preflop raises are usually much larger than online. It requires larger C bets which would require you to be deeper than 100 bb. recommend never doing it OOP tho if you do it at all.

As far as bluffing goes I just take C bet line mostly but dot be afraid to go after a pot that everyone has obviously given up on. Picking up pots that you normally wouldn't have is a great way to stay afloat while waiting for good spots. It's all about timing and it really matters what your image is, if you have been winning it may be a great time to run a bluff. Mostly situational tho like everyone says.

3 betting light in position is printing money if you are competent postflop. its table dependent since a lot of players like playing 100bb stacks as if they were 40bb stacks by raising to 8bb pre. at a table where people open 3-6bb, its definitely something to take advantage of.

one of the major benefits of 3 betting light is it forces everyone on your right to adjust. live players play very badly against 3 bets and in 3 bet pots. thus if you crap on a tagfish a few times, suddenly he starts limping in a large portion of his range meaning you get to expand your limping range in position and see more flops.

bluffing is situational. I personally never (or extremely rarely) do a one street bluff, you are better off folding in those spots if you arent willing to commit to two streets. if the one street bluff worked, you likely either had the best hand or was going to win the pot on a later street anyways.

Some rules of thumb in 3-betting light at 1/2:

1. Never do it from the blinds
2. Always do it with hands that play well postflop/can flop big hands. Connectors, Ax/Kx suited, little pairs.
3. Always have multiple plans in place for different boards.
4. Don't do it until you have reads at the table.

So many "thinking" players try to juice pots OOP to outplay the "fish" postflop. Or, almost as bad, they raise garbage on the button with the intention of taking it down pre and lacking a plan post. When you lack information/reads on the table and start 3-betting light OOP with trash you're going to burn money and you're better off just folding.

When you 3-bet light you should always expect someone to call. Just in case they do, you're ready.

It is rare to find 1-2 games that are deep enough to 3bet light profitably

Even if the whole table is 100bb deep which is tough to find, your committing 15%+ of your stack PF, more with a cbet, too many stations for it to be a good move

Well. Never bluffing at all is a smaller leak than bluffing too often (or into the wrong opponents). So that makes it good default advice for new players. Most V's are stationy, and bluffing a station is (of course) bad.

As others have said, there *are* spots that are worthwhile to bluff at. Nits are an option, but you have to watch out for the guys that just sat there for 2 hours and *WILL NOT* fold their hand, regardless of if it looks like they're beat.

C-bets on boards that should have hit you are good candidates. Small pots that are checked around are another. Thinking players that can fold are the best targets.

It's all about picking your spots.

Player and table dependent.

If a guy is consistently opening to $10 at a $1/$2 game, he's either getting hit with the deck or he's opening wide, right? The latter is more likely, so you can profitably 3-bet him.

If a player has a variety of opening sizes and you can pick up on them, you can pick your spots to 3-bet lighter. For instance, $10, $10, $10, $17, $10, $10, $17. Our opponents will sometimes give away the strength - or weakness - of their hand by their sizing. Some players have a different size for JJ and AK then they do for AA or KK; I love to play against those guys and bluff them off their hands when I get the chance.

As for bluffing, I think the same things apply - pick the spot to bluff based on tendencies you pick up at the table.

I would say don't bluff at $1/$2 or $1/$3 and you can beat both games. But I think you can substantially improve your winrate if you can successfully bluff.

Here's an example: I'm a winner at $1/$2 and $1/$3. I have a friend who is a bigger winner. Crushing the games. Why? Because he is better at bluffing and 3-betting light than I am.

I like this one too ... but you gotta watch out for the differences in position. Some guys will make these variations based on the number of limpers or their position. (As they should.)

We are talking about a bajillion different things here.
- 3betting light to take it down pre
- stabbing at pots ott
- cbetting air
- mythopoetic all-in river bluffs.

These are all very different things, and most are really bad habits to get into at 1/2.

The exception is the cbet line.

Without this tool, people often find themselves taking all kinds of ridiculous "deception" lines to try to squeeze money out of players who have accurately figured out that hero don't bluff.

You seem to be imagining that the only reason to bluff is to balance your range.

Save those plays for when you have solid reads. For example, a good spot to light 3-bet would be if there was a limp and someone in front raises to $7 and you've seen him raise to $12-15 with premium hands and you're in late position. That would be a good spot to 3-bet light because we have a read that his small sizing most likely means his range is weak and we can isolate against that weak range and usually take the pot down with a c-bet on the flop. If not we have position and can play the next 2 streets accordingly.

So yeah, 3bet and bluff only when you have really good reads and play ABC otherwise.

Not the "only," just the "essential" reason.

Poker is a game of decision-making with incomplete information. If you never bluff (or, if you always bluff) it is no longer a game of incomplete information. Quite the opposite, actually.

You could say that 1/2 players never pay attention to your bluff frequency. To that I would say:

1. Yuh-huh! Bluffing infuriates them. They do notice.
2. Not everybody at the poker table is a brain-dead calling station. Some are brain-dead nits. By which I mean, "people who never bluff." (And some are decent players. Like us! )

To be sure, a little of that goes a long way at 1/2. A looooooong way.

Who knows what the ideal bluff frequency is? James Swanson presented a simplified experimental model of poker where he was able to prove the ideal bluff frequency is 1/3. Real poker is different, and the ideal bluff frequency is table dependent. Maybe at 1/2 the ideal frequency is half that or less. But I will never believe in a million years the correct answer is zero.

+1 to this ^^^. Someone mentioned earlier "I don't know where you play???" This is something you should be very aware of. A large percentage of live casinos are going to be full of players on thinking on level 1. However the the game I play is filled with a good mix of players and alot of level 2 thinkers with a handful of players on level 3. Something to be aware of and be wary of people advising general strategies against "live fish pools".

Didn't twoplustwo use to have some good lags flying about who would have something other than the same dull weak tight dross to say.........
You can 3bet light when ever you want.....its best to do it in position, but its a must from the blinds if you have perenial stealers to your right.....
The cards really don't matter that much, if at all, its always nice to have something that flops well, but there again if it flops well why not take a multiway pot with it.....a good 3betting range should be wide and relativly polarized...but nit exclusivly......
Meh...i could go on but I wont