.jpg "The Simple Trick to Beat People Who Bluff Too Much")
This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
One thing that virtually all winning poker players have in common is the fact that they’re playing an aggressive style of poker.
Playing aggressively allows you to win “more than your fair share”, but what do you do when your opponents are playing aggressively against you?
Playing against players who bluff a lot can be frustrating, but you can use your opponent’s aggression against them if you employ the right strategy.
In this article, we’ll go over simple strategies you can use to absolutely crush players who bluff a lot.
Let’s get right into it.
1. Call Them Down With a Wider Range
Calling too much is one of the most common amateur poker mistakes at the lower stakes.
That’s because when players make big bets or raises, especially on big money streets (i.e. the turn or the river), they usually have something to show for it.
In other words, most low stakes players actually underbluff, so calling them down too widely is a big mistake.
That’s not the case when you’re playing against players who bluff a lot, though.
When playing against these players, you don’t have to wait around for a monster hand to stack them.
It’s enough to have a decent hand that’s comfortably ahead of their range.
To do this successfully, first you need to be aware how wide their range is to begin with.
There are a few factors that determine how wide your opponent’s range is at a given spot:
a) how loose they are overall
The more hands your opponent plays preflop, the more likely they are to have a lot of air in their range.
In no-limit hold’em, most hands miss most flops, so the more hands someone plays, the more often they’re going to miss the flop completely.
If you’re playing poker online and you’re using a HUD (heads-up display), you can check your opponent’s VPIP stat.
VPIP stands for “voluntarily put money in pot”, and it simply refers to the percentage of hands a player chooses to play preflop.
If you want to use stats to give yourself more information about your opponent’s playstyle, my HUD choice as a 10+ year pro is PokerTracker.
If you’re playing poker live, you obviously can’t rely on HUD stats, so you’re going to have to observe your opponents to figure out how many hands they play preflop.
Protip: always look at your opponent’s showdown hands when they get to showdown.
If you find your opponents often go to showdown with weird, nonsensical hands, chances are they’re playing too many hands for their own good.
b) your opponent’s table position
As a general rule, the closer your opponent is to the dealer button, the wider their range and vice versa.
Being close to the button or on the button allows you to play in position post flop, which is a huge advantage.
Due to the positional advantage, you can play a lot more hands profitably.
In other words, you can get away with playing weaker ranges overall.
Of course, this only applies if your opponents actually pay attention to their table position and adjust their game accordingly.
But usually, even the recreational players are at least vaguely aware they shouldn’t be playing too many hands in early table positions.
For example, if a player open-raises under the gun (the first seat to act), you should probably give them a lot more credit than if they open-raise from the cutoff and the button (i.e. late table positions).
c) your opponent’s overall aggression level
In no-limit hold’em, it’s actually very rare to make a very strong hand combination.
So if you see a player betting and raising incessantly, it’s a good indicator they are probably bluffing way too much.
If you’re using a HUD, you can check your opponent’s overall aggression factor (AF) to figure out how likely they are to bluff.
The AF of 1 indicates an extremely passive player, while the AF of 5 indicates an extremely aggressive player (aka a maniac).
Check out my article for the 15 best HUD stats you should include in your display.
For live poker players, you simply have to use your observational skills to determine your opponent’s aggression level.
But again, overly aggressive players are usually fairly easy to spot, so identifying them shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Playing against them, on the other hand, can be challenging to say the least.
So in the rest of the article, we’ll take a closer look at some specific strategies to use your opponent’s aggression against them.
Also, make sure to check out my recent video on how to easily catch your opponents bluffing every time.
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2. Resteal Against Blind Stealing Atempts
We’ll start with some preflop adjustments you can make in your game, then we’ll work on some common post flop spots to deal with frequent aggression.
First we’ll discuss the very common blind stealing scenario.
To blind steal means to open-raise from the late table positions (the cutoff, the button, and the small blind) with the intention of getting the blinds to fold and taking down the pot preflop.
To clarify, blind stealing can only happen when you’re the first player to enter the pot in these late table positions.
If another player open-raises or open-limps in front of you, you can’t blind steal anymore.
Blind stealing can be a very profitable strategy, and the players who bluff a lot are likely to engage in rampant blind stealing if given the chance.
One advantage of blind stealing is that you don’t need to have a particularly strong hand to do it successfully.
In fact, your own hand strength is often irrelevant.
What matters more is the playing tendencies of players in the blinds.
For example, if your opponents overfold to blind stealing attempts, you can blind steal with basically any 2 cards.
Check out my ultimate blind stealing cheat sheet to learn how to pick up easy money preflop.
This strategy can be extremely profitable, but it can be frustrating when you’re on the receiving end of blind stealing attempts.
There are 2 ways to counteract incessant blind stealing. You can either:
a) defend your blinds by calling with a wider range
b) 3-bet resteal (i.e. re-raise).
In theory, you should defend your blinds by flat calling with a relatively wide range, but this can be quite tricky against overly aggressive players who bluff a lot.
That’s because you will play the rest of the hand out of position without the initiative and the range advantage.
If you miss the flop, it’s going to be very hard to call your opponent down when they keep betting on multiple streets.
One of the key adjustments to make against overly aggressive players is to simply try to play more pots in position against them.
So defending a wide range in the blinds means you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.
A much better alternative is to 3-bet resteal.
I show you exactly what hands to do this with in my second book, Modern Small Stakes.
When you 3-bet against blind stealing attempts, you’re attacking very wide and weak ranges.
And most hands in that range simply can’t stand the pressure of a 3-bet.
This means your opponent will often just give up the hand right then and there.
Even if they call you, you’ll be in a much better position post flop, because now you will be the preflop aggressor.
This gives you the opportunity to make a c-bet on the flop and put pressure on your opponent, instead of the other way around.
Example Hand #1
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt A♦2♦ in the SB (small blind). A loose and aggressive (LAG) opponent open-raises to 2.5 BB from the BU (button).
You: ???
You should 3-bet to 10 BB.
This is a textbook spot to attempt a light 3-bet, as you’re attacking a very wide and weak range from the open-raiser.
By 3-betting this hand, you can sometimes make them fold their stronger Ax hands, which is obviously great for you.
Even if you get called, you still have a playable hand that can connect with the flop in more than one way.
This means you can keep applying the pressure post flop with a c-bet, or potentially hit a strong combination like a straight or a flush and take down a huge pot.
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3. Float the Flop More Often
Another simple adjustment you can make against overly aggressive players is to float the flop with a wider range.
To float the flop means to call on the flop (preferably in position), and try to take down the pot on future streets, usually with a bluff of your own.
In most low stakes games, players are likely to c-bet the flop with a wide range, but they often give up on future streets if you call them down.
In other words, a lot of players tend to be “turn honest”, meaning they aren’t likely to fire another shell on the turn unless they happen to have a very strong hand.
If you’re using a HUD, you should look for a big gap between their flop c-betting and turn c-betting frequencies.
A big gap between the two (20% or more) usually indicates a turn honest player.
It’s worth noting that overly aggressive players will have more opportunities for a turn c-bet, because they c-bet the flop a lot in the first place.
Players who don’t c-bet the flop as often will naturally have less turn c-betting opportunities, so you need a bigger sample size to accurately assess their turn c-betting frequency.
Either way, turn c-betting frequency does require a big sample size to be accurate.
As a general rule, you would need a sample size of at least 1000 hands for the turn c-betting frequency to be accurate.
More is always better, of course.
But again, if a player c-bets the flop a lot, they will have more opportunities to c-bet the turn and vice versa.
If you’re playing live poker, you simply need to observe how often a player c-bets the flop and turn, respectively.
This may take some time, since you won’t be playing as many hands in live poker, so you need to rely on other sources of information.
So how do you float the flop successfully?
You simply call down the flop c-bets with a wider range than usual.
This may be uncomfortable at first, so it’s best to float the flop with hands that have decent equity when you continue playing the hand.
You don’t want to float the flop with hands that have very little chance of improving on future streets.
Here are some hands you can consider floating the flop with:
a) overcards
If you have one or two overcards, sometimes you can improve to a top pair on the turn or river, which can often give you the best hand against overly aggressive players.
For example, if you have KJ and the flop is 9♣5♥2♦
In this spot, you have 6 outs to improve to a top pair, which can often be good enough to call against players who have a lot of air in their range.
b) backdoor draws
A backdoor draw means you need both turn and river cards to complete your hand.
Calling on the flop with a backdoor draw is usually not profitable, as the chances of actually completing your draw are quite slim.
However, sometimes it can be a good idea, as you have more than one way to win the hand on future streets.
On the rare occasions you do hit your outs, you stand to gain quite a substantial pot, especially if you can rely on your opponent to build up the pot for you.
c) inside straight draws
An inside straight draw is a relatively weak draw that only completes 17% of the time.
However, it can be profitable to chase these draws if you have decent implied odds, which is often going to be the case against overly aggressive opponents.
d) pocket pairs
If you don’t hit a set on the flop, you can still consider calling on the flop and hopefully bink a set on the turn.
This is not going to happen often, as you only have 2 outs, but if you do, the implied odds are likely to be through the roof.
That’s because your hand strength is likely to be well-concealed, so you can catch your opponent off-guard and potentially stack them.
These are all just general examples, of course.
The point is that you want to float the flop with hands that are not totally hopeless to begin with.
The objective of floating is usually not to get lucky and improve to a monster hand.
Rather, it is about trying to take down the pot with a well-timed bluff if your opponent seems ready to give up the hand.
In this regard, your hand strength (or lack thereof) is totally irrelevant.
What matters more is your opponent’s playing tendencies.
For example, if your opponent almost always c-bets the flop, but often gives up on the turn, you can float them with just about any two cards.
Then, when they check to you on the turn, you simply fire a half-pot bet and they’ll usually just fold then and there.
However, sometimes they will also fire another barrel on the turn, in which case you need to be prepared for a double float.
And if they just check on the river, it usually means they’ve exhausted their aggressive arsenal.
So when they check to you on the river, again, you just fire off a bet of your own and take down the pot.
This is why it’s advised to float (or double float) with hands that have at least some chance of improving.
That way, you can win the pot in two ways: you can either make your opponent fold with a bluff of your own, or you can sometimes slide into a monster hand, which is obviously the best case scenario.
Example Hand #2
You are dealt 8♥7♥ and the flop is K♥5♣4♦
The pot is 10 BB and your opponent bets 5 BB.
You: ???
You should call.
Even though you’re not getting sufficient pot odds with an inside straight draw, you can still call in this spot.
If your opponent is likely to keep barreling on future streets, the implied odds will make calling justifiable.
And if your opponent just checks on the turn, you can just take a stab with a half pot bet, regardless of whether or not you’ve hit one of your outs.
Chances are, they’re going to give up the hand right there and then.
If your opponent bets again on the turn, you can go for a double float, or even raise them if you pick up some equity (for example, you turn a flush draw).
In today’s games, it takes more than waiting around for a premium hand to be a profitable long term winner.
You also need to look for edges in less than ideal circumstances. This means knowing how to play out of position against skilled opponents who won’t just roll over.
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4. Switch Seats
It’s worth noting that most of these strategies work best if you’re able to play in position against your opponents.
Playing in position is just about the biggest advantage you can have in the hand.
This is true when you’re playing against recreational and regular players alike.
However, you won’t always have the luxury of playing in position against your opponents.
If an overly aggressive opponent is seated to your left, this means they will have the positional advantage over you most of the time.
If that’s the case, you should be aware that you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.
It’s actually very hard to play profitably out of position against aggressive players.
That’s because they can use the positional advantage to apply pressure on you, both preflop and post flop.
In practice, this means they can keep barreling into you over multiple post flop streets.
If you’re the preflop aggressor, then they can use the positional advantage to float or double float you instead of the other way around.
There are certain ways you can offset your positional disadvantage, like check-raising or slowplaying with your monster hands.
A check-raise is a very powerful move that can only be done out of position, and it’s a great way to take the initiative away from your opponent, especially if they happen to bluff a lot.
But for the most part, playing out of position will automatically put you at a disadvantage, so it’s best to avoid these spots altogether.
Of course, if you get dealt a decent hand, sometimes you just have to play it out of position and hope for the best.
But if you’re dealt some sort of a marginal hand, it’s usually better to err on the side of caution and simply fold it preflop if you expect to face a lot of aggression post flop.
If you have a very aggressive player on your direct left, the best adjustment you can make is to simply tighten up your preflop ranges.
This way, it will be easier to deal with their incessant aggression, and you will have a better fighting chance post flop against them.
But at the end of the day, these strategies can only get you so far.
Sometimes the only winning move is not to play at all.
If you’re playing poker online and you have a very aggressive player on your left, sometimes the best thing you can do is to simply switch seats, or even find a new table.
Provided your online poker site actually allows for seat selection and table selection, of course.
Ideally, you want to have very passive players sitting on your direct left.
This way, you can eliminate the annoyance of constantly facing aggressive 3-bets every time you open-raise the hand.
Also, having a very passive player on your left will allow you to blind steal a lot more often.
Not only will they usually overfold to blind stealing attempts, but they also won’t adjust enough when you attempt to blind steal from the cutoff.
Since they won’t play as many hands as they should from the button, this means you can expand your open-raising range from the cutoff and play more hands in position post flop.
When you’re playing against overly aggressive opponents, it’s the exact opposite.
They will often punish your late position open-raises by 3-betting incessantly, and they may often flat call you from the button or the cutoff, thus denying you your positional advantage.
For these reasons, it’s best to either tighten up your open-raising ranges, or better yet, simply try to find a more profitable table.
Of course, if you’re playing tournaments or if you’re playing live poker, you won’t have the luxury of switching seats.
In that case, you can use other strategies outlined in this article to give yourself a fighting chance.
Bottom line: playing against overly aggressive opponents can be frustrating, but you can still beat them if you use the power of position to your advantage.
If you’re playing out of position, on the other hand, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle, so it’s best to avoid these spots altogether if possible.
If you're still struggling with playing against aggressive players out of position, check out The Microstakes Playbook.
5. Bluff Catch With Hands With Showdown Value
Now, let’s address the titular question on how to beat players who bluff a lot.
If you think about it, this question basically answers itself.
If somebody bluffs a lot, you simply bluff catch wider against them.
As the name suggests, to bluff catch means to call your opponent down when you think they have a lot of air in their range.
Waiting around for the nuts and trying to trap these players is not the most effective strategy.
That’s because strong value hands really don’t come around all that often in no-limit hold’em.
So instead of waiting around for the nuts, a more effective strategy is to call them down with hands that have enough showdown value.
A hand with showdown value is the one that’s not strong enough to value bet with, but can often win at showdown.
For example, let’s say you are dealt pocket Tens and you see the following board runout:
K♠9♥2♣8♥4♣
In a spot like this, you can't bet for value, because it’s unlikely you will get called by a lot of weaker hands.
Unless you happen to be playing against a major calling station, but that’s an entirely different story.
But just because you can’t bet for value, it doesn’t mean you won’t still win the hand from time to time.
Apart from the rare set and some Kx hands, there really isn’t a lot of hands that actually beat you here.
So if you’re playing against a player who happens to bluff a lot, this is a great spot to bluff catch against them.
If your opponent keeps betting here, they’re usually trying to represent some sort of a Kx hand.
But there’s all kinds of bluffs in their range you’re comfortably ahead of.
There are some busted straight draws like QJ, JT, QT, as well as a number of busted flush draws.
There’s also very few 2 pair hands that make sense here, apart from maybe K9 or 98.
This is just an example, of course.
Your opponent’s exact range will depend on a number of different factors, namely their table position, the previous action, as well as their overall playing tendencies.
But when it comes to bluff catching, it’s worth remembering that you will usually encounter a fairly awkward spot where you simply have to trust your judgement.
You always have to consider your opponent’s overall range, not just the hands that beat you.
Of course, sometimes you will call your opponent down and they will show you Ace-King or a set.
This is undoubtedly frustrating, but it’s not a disaster by any means.
If nothing else, you will show your opponent that you’re actually willing to call them down wider, so they will have to think twice about trying to bluff you the next time around.
6. Trap Them With Monster Hands
One final strategy you can employ against overly aggressive players requires a bit of patience, but can be very profitable if you do it the right way.
And this strategy involves slowplaying your strong hands.
To slowplay means to play your hand passively (i.e. check and call) instead of betting and raising in order to conceal your hand strength.
Slowplaying is only effective if you can rely on your opponent to build up the pot for you.
That’s why it’s not recommended to slowplay your strong hands if you’re up against most recreational players who tend to play too passively themselves.
Most recreational players aren’t likely to bluff a lot, and they usually tend to overcall instead.
To overcall means to call more often than would be considered “optimal”. In other words, it means calling so much that it leaves you vulnerable to getting exploited.
Against these passive players, your best bet is to play your hand straightforwardly.
This means betting and raising with your strong hands to take advantage of their overcalling tendencies.
But against aggressive players who bluff a lot, slowplaying can be very effective.
When you slowplay, it’s going to incentivize them to bluff you with a wider range, so you can just call them down and let them donate their stack to you.
If you raise them at some point in the hand, this will let them know that you have a strong hand, so they will just fold all of their air.
Raising with your monster hands may be tempting, since you want to get as much money in the middle as possible.
This is why it’s important to remain patient, and trust in your judgment that they will keep barreling if you give them the opportunity to do so.
It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to wait around for the stone cold nuts to employ this strategy.
If you have a decent hand with plenty of showdown value, you can employ the bluff catching strategy.
But it’s obviously easier to slowplay with hands that have a ton of equity against your opponent’s range.
This way, you don’t have to guess whether or not your hand is actually ahead.
One drawback of this strategy is that very strong value hands don’t come around all that often in no-limit hold’em.
This is why it’s crucial to have other weapons in your repertoire against overly aggressive players.
This includes floating them with a wider range, bluff catching with hands with showdown value, or even fighting back by raising against a lot of air-heavy ranges.
The Simple Trick to Beat People Who Bluff Too Much - Summary
Playing against overly aggressive players can be frustrating, but you don’t need to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to play against them effectively.
All you have to do is make a few simple adjustments to your game, and use your opponent’s aggression against them.
To sum up, here’s how you can beat players who bluff too much.
1. Call them down with a wider range
Calling too much is usually a losing strategy, but it can be quite effective against players who bluff a lot.
Against these players, simply call them down with a wider range (preferably in position), and they will have to think twice about bluffing you with impunity.
2. 3-bet resteal against stealing attempts
Players who bluff a lot will usually try to blind steal with quite a wide range.
This means you can defend your blinds with a wider range, or better yet, go for a 3-bet resteal to keep them in check.
3. Float the flop
To float the flop means to call on the flop with a wider range with the intention of taking down the pot at some point later in the hand (usually with a bluff on your own).
A lot of players will c-bet the flop with a high frequency, but will play a lot more straightforwardly on the turn.
You can take advantage of that by simply betting every time they check the turn (or when they check the river if you attempt a double float).
4. Switch seats
Playing against overly aggressive players out of position means fighting an uphill battle.
If you have a very aggressive player on your left, sometimes the best course of action is to simply look for a more profitable table.
If you can’t switch seats, tighten up your open-raising ranges so you don’t get punished by their incessant 3-betting.
5. Bluff catch with hands with showdown value
Hands with showdown value are the ones that aren’t strong enough to value bet with, but can often win at showdown.
These hands make for great bluff catching candidates, especially when your opponent happens to have a lot of bluffs in their range.
6. Trap them with monster hands
Slowplaying is a very effective strategy against overly aggressive players that allows you to use their aggression against them.
When you get a monster hand, simply allow them to to all the betting in the hand, and sit back and watch them donate their stack to you.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at fran.redline@gmail.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
