Cash game Strategy: Bluffers vs Chasers

There are two types of Poker cash game players: Bluffers and Chasers.

Bluffers:

Bluffing in Poker is an art and is considered to be a very effective Poker strategy when used rightly. A bluffer is someone who bets or raises despite having a  weak hand in order to deceive his opponent. The objective of deception is to make your weak hand look stronger than it is and persuade the opponent to fold.

However, bluffing in Poker is not as easy as it may sound. You must have enough practice, experience and talent to turn your bluffs into winnings. A successful bluffer not only bluffs, but also often figures out if the opponent is bluffing with big bets, and thus ends up winning the pot more often than not. To be good at bluffing, you must have strong observation skills to know when exactly your opponent is bluffing.

If you wait consistently for good cards to be dealt to you, you become highly likely to eventually lose the enthusiasm and to also greatly shrink your profit margin. Bluffing enables you to leave your opponent confused about where they stand in the current hand. Nevertheless, the excitement of bluffing always comes with a risk, and if not applied correctly, it can get you into trouble too.

There are two types of bluff:  Pure bluff and Semi bluff.

Pure bluff is also known as Stone-cold bluff. Pure Bluff is a bet that you make when it’s almost impossible for you to improve your hand any better in later rounds. You just hope that your opponents will fold after you make a bet, thinking your cards are better than theirs. And if they do, your Pure bluff works as hoped for and brings you the winning pot.  

Semi-bluff is one of the very common forms of bluffing among professional players. In Semi bluffing, a player bets on cards that are neither too bad to fold nor too good to win, and this is where semi-bluffing can work in your favour. You hope that your cards will improve in later rounds and they do if you know the art of doing Semi bluffing and the right time to do it.

When playing online Poker, you will find more players buffing than in a land-based casino as you cannot see your opponent. The best way to combat online bluffs is to take notes on your opponent and if they laid a hand down at showdown, go back to the hand histories of your opponents and see what cards they held.

Chasers:

Chase or chasing is a situation in which a player calls, bets on a draw, or chases his hand-making cards, usually a straight or a flush. To know when to chase in a Poker game depends on the probability or the pot odds. Being able to calculate the possibility of hitting a draw like a flush or straight will either allow you to fold the cards which are not in your favour or raise when the odds of hitting the cards are in your favour.

It requires a lot of practice to calculate pot odds, but you can also quickly determine whether you should continue to chase or not. Pot odds go hand-in-hand with the possibility of hitting a draw. If you are playing with an opponent who is placing a bet with 40% or more of the pot value and you have the draw probability of 4 to 1 or worse, the best decision is to call off your chase and fold for the round.

To know when to chase not solely involves pot odds or the hand probability. Sometimes Poker players call even when they are not sure about the other player’s hand. Just for chasing the hands they call even when they know that they don’t have pot odds to draw the game. If you believe that the community cards will not be in your favour, then the pot odds and the probability of hands are not enough to win and also if your opponent has deceptively strong hands.

Good luck!