How often and when should you bluff

I stopped bluffing and slow playing only high cards , suited cards and maybe when dealt a pair and fold when I flop nothing. Sometimes I make it to the money but with low stack. How and when is bluffing okay

There's an old saying: If you never get caught bluffing you are not doing it enough

And if you want (and I'm sure you do) more comprehensive explanation about the subject, I suggest you google Jonathan Little+bluff ratio
He explains it nicely and more thoroughly than any of us probably will.

For me the easiest one is when you raised before the flop and the board comes low cards. One bet there takes it a lot, most flops miss him too. After that, betting your flush draws and straight draws, you win some pots right away and still have outs when he calls. Pure bluffs with nothing I'd leave for later. And the short cashes are partly the same leak, if you never steal blinds late the blinds eat you.

Bluffing is a natural aspect of the game: you need to have bluffs because, if you do not, no one would pay you when they have worse hands.

When you go deep into studying theory, bluffing and bluff-catching becomes a crucial aspect of the game.
And, of course, you will know which combos are best do bluff with in certain spots.
It is not a feeling, it is science and theory applied. You`ll be caught, and that`s ok. You`ll catch bluffs as well, and that is ok too.

If we want to win at poker, we have to win enough pots, or at least enough large pots. We just can't win a profitable amount of pots only having the best hand because the deals are not going to give us the best hand often enough. This means that we have to win a pot now and then without the best hand. We have to bluff at least once in a while.

The point is also made above that if we never bluff we will have trouble getting paid when we are strong. After 2 or 3 or 4 times an opponent calls us and loses to our strong value, he realizes that we only bet when we have it, so we end up telling him that we have it when we bet and he has an easy fold. We have to mix some bluffs in to keep him guessing. This is the essence of showing balance. Villain hates us when we are balanced because he's always in a tough spot when we bet, not knowing if we are strong or if we are full of it. We are difficult to play against and this is good.

So when to bluff? In order to bluff, there has to be a hand ahead of us that might fold, preferably a few hands. If we have A-high and the board is QT742, 2x 4x, 7x, and Tx as well as hands like 33 and 55 all might fold here. This is a possible bluff spot. On the other hand, if we have top set but there are 4 spades on the board, no hand better than us is folding except maybe a really weak spade, so this is not a good bluff spot.

Villain's who check the flop out of position can often be bluffed, especially if we are the PFR. This is the most common bluff in hold'em.

Bluffs work best heads-up. It is twice as hard to get 2 Villains to fold as 1. Just imagine how hard it is to fold out more.

A bluff usually has to rep something on the board or just strength in general. This is why scare cards are our friends. For example, if the flop is checked and an A hits the turn, we can bet and Villain will often fold because he thinks you have an A. Paired boards make great scares, even better than completed draws and less risky too.

Bluffs work best when they are backed by previous street aggression because this aggression reps itself. When we barrel our bluffs we are repping overpairs, sets, etc that may not be clear on the board.

Like in any pot, if we can plan for multiple ways to win, we need to do it, and this is never more important than with bluffs. The concept is semi bluff or equity bluff. Let's say that we have flopped a flush draw. We can bet this even though we have nothing. If Villain folds, great but if he calls, at least we might still hit our flush, and if we do the pot is now bigger. ; ). On the other hand, if we bluff with complete air and get called, we lose 100% of the time.

Sizing for bluffs is tricky. How much should we bet? Well there is a zen thing here. Like Charlie Carrell says, our bluff size is the smallest amount that will make Villain fold. This is usually a larger size. Small bets are just too easy to call. If it is cheap enough, Villain might call us just to see our cards and put a bluff frequency on us. The amount to bet will depend on Villain tendencies, pot odds, stacks, proximity to the bubble etc. Most of all, Villain's actions on previous streets will tell us. If Villain has been passive in the hand, he will be more likely to fold and a normal bluff size will usually be best. If Villain has been barreling aggressively, it will probably take a lot more to bluff him off of his hand, and we will need a good scare card too. In fact, if he is that strong we may not want to bluff him at all. But our bluff sizing is the smallest amount that we have reason to believe that will make Villain fold. Anything larger than this is just extra risk if we get called. And we will get called and lose now and then (hopefully not too often). That is just part of the game that we must accept.

every chance I get unless it's close to in the money, then only on people with a lower bankroll

We definitely can not simply give up every time, we miss the flop. If we were the preflop raiser, we need to C-bet flops, that are good for our range, especially when we are in position. And even when we are not the preflop raiser, we need to get at least a little bit sticky and float our opponent in position, or perhaps check-raise out of position, if we flop a draw. On the flop and turn its to simple to say, we are either bluffing or betting for value, because most hands will have equity. So we are also betting for equity denial, and when we get called by a better hand, we might improve later AKA "semi-bluffing".

On the river its more black and white, because we either have the best hand or not (or sometimes a chop), and the only reason to bet is to get worse hands to call or better hands to fold. And maybe its possible to be a winning player in soft games, even if we never bluff the river. So river bluffing is not the most important skill to work on as a beginner playing freerolls and soft microstakes games.

But there are definitely profitable spots to bluff the river, especially when nobody have shown interest in the hand. And usually some level of dynamics also exist, where getting caught bluffing the river might make it easier for us to get paid by the same player in future hands. Especially if its a cash game, an STT or an MTT final table, where players dont get moved around. And if we get down to heads-up play in a tournament, we definitely need to bluff, because in most hands neither player has anything strong, and we have to win some pots to stay in the game.

I bluff when I have already studied the behavior of players at the table and how my bankroll allows me to do this, bluffing on the last chips is a bad idea.

passat1600 said:

I bluff when I have already studied the behavior of players at the table and how my bankroll allows me to do this, bluffing on the last chips is a bad idea.

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By that rationale you would never bluff under 20bb and that is a very powerful weapon you are removing from your arsenal when you need it most to survive.

Jamming as a bluff actually has a little extra fold equity because it forces Villain to show down with what he has. He can only play for value if he can't raise you later.

You need to bluff some times, but I don't know how much!