Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 12 November 2009 / Leave a comment

There is an old poker saying that states that you 'cannot bluff an idiot'. Although this statement has its points, it is not completely true, and learning how to bluff very weak players is critical to maximising your win rate.

Weak players can be bluffed just as easily as any other player, but the style you need to use is fundamentally different

The fundamental rule to remember about bluffing weak players is to never big bet bluff them. Against astute players, it is crucial to throw in the odd big bet bluff in order to get action on future hands, but this tactic is completely pointless against weak players, who neither respect the bet size, nor any memory of previous hands, or the ability to think about future hands.

So if you find yourself on the river with a missed draw against a very weak player, do not fire out a massive bet, if they have stuck around that long it is extremely unlikely that they will fold. However, just because you cannot make big bluffs against these players, it does not mean that they cannot be bluffed, more that the style of bluff has to be modified.

Very weak players are nearly always complete suckers for small ball bluffs. Although they go very far with weak hands, when they have nothing they tend to just fold, meaning that they can be moved off of most flops by constant small bets. It is no coincidence that one of the players renowned for his ability at beating very weak hold'em players, Phil Hellmuth, is a particular master of this style, constantly probing players with an endless stream of small bet bluffs, but shutting down in all the big pots unless he is holding the nuts.

Very weak players have two key areas of weakness, both of which need to be understood and adjusted to. Firstly, they go too far with marginal hands. This is no problem to a good player, as you simply hit big hands and bet into them on every street and let their willingness to go too far with a big hand pay you off.

The second area they habitually make mistakes in is not fighting back enough when they have nothing. Hold'em is a game where most of the time you miss the flop, and you have to be able to make moves with junk on the flop to keep your opponents guessing. Weak players are usually unable to do this, and simply give up whenever they miss, which makes them perfect marks for small ball bluffing.

Weak players can be bluffed just as easily as any other player, but the style you need to use is fundamentally different. Don't go firing out monster all ins into these players, simply sit back and let the constant turnover of small bet bluffs, combined with big bets with big hands, drain them.

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