Arigato!

I have a lesson in Poker for a change. The ancient art of war in Poker. My friends. You will make more money if you do not bluff too often, however if you do bluff, in your mind it must be as if you have these cards.

Now I am going to share a poorly played hand and some of the why I played it. I am in the blinds and get 77. Very poor hand. The guy before me raises $5. I am feeling a little cocky so I call. The flop is JTx. So I bet out half the pot and get called.

Now my thinking here is if I had rockets, there is a straight draw on board, I am not going to cold call. So either he has low pockets, possibly higher than 77, or maybe AK.

I check the turn and he bets 1/3 the pot. Now again, this is a weak bet for overs. I could be getting suckered but I had a feeling.

He bets $15 on the river and I just cold call him. My instincts are good and his AK loses him a lot of money.

The point my friends is if you are going to bluff, you have to believe you have AA. You must POT it on the flop. If you do not do this then you are causing people to doubt you. If he played as if he had AA then I would have folded the flop like I should have instead of wondering what he had. BTW – I do not recommend playing 77 the way I did. I just want to make a point. Also, if your bluff fails let it go. It is not worth it.

I decide to tweak him after that. I know, I am a mean bastard, but I gotta kill the pain somehow. So I say “Sorry about that, I just started playing Poker”.

So he tries to bite his tongue and a few minutes later says “I can not believe you called with 77 and played it to the river”. Instead of saying, “Me Either”, I keep on my earlier theme and say “Yeah, I am new at this, can you teach me how to bluff?”

He busted out shortly afterwards, still fuming mad I assume.