It’s World Series time in Las Vegas, and the crowds of players are starting to assemble. I don’t think the events will be as big as everyone is forecasting, as summer vacation is family time for many players who also have lives. But it will still be very big.

I will be stopping by the Rio from time to time and if I see or hear anything interesting, I will post it here. I certainly will not try to cover anything you can read on the major sites that do interviews and results.

I have been playing a bit more 80-160 and 100-200, being very selective in picking good games. Low limit players often think that everyone who plays at limits like that play at least decently, but that is not so. True, some play extremely well, but others are there to have fun, match wits, get drunk, or test themselves against good players or simply play at a limit their bankroll finds interesting.

I want to say a quick word about being bluffed. Many players feel that being bluffed out of a pot is a humiliating and degrading experience. If they fold and someone shows them a bluff, they feel an anger/shame that they can’t explain or quell. They want revenge; they want to hide; they want to bluff they guy right back.

All of this is silly, of course. Everyone gets bluffed. Everyone (give or take) makes a successful bluff now and then. Some way more then others but sooner or later everyone bluffs and wins. And, sad to say, good players get bluffed more often than bad players, as good players can figure out what (they think) is going on, or recognize scary situations, and fold.

Sometimes you should fold even knowing the opponent might be bluffing. You have QhTh on the button and open-raise. The big blind calls. The flop comes As7d6d. The big blinds bets out (or check-raises). What do you do? Well, a few of you get stubborn and try to steal it (back?), but most of us fold. The pot is small, we have no hand/no draw, and the opponent is telling us he has something. Sometimes he will have a pair (A, 7, 6 or pocket). Sometimes he will have a flush draw we can beat. Sometimes he will have a flush draw we can’t beat. Sometimes he will have nothing.

But unless he makes a habit of this kind of play, we fold and move on. But now he shows us 4d 3d. We were bluffed! OK, that was one of the possible hands he might hold and he made a good play. And if we call, he will still win 62+% of the time. But even if he shows us 3c2c and had no real draws, we still could not have called unless we were peeking.

In baseball, sometimes a guy strikes out and sometimes he hits a home run. Life goes on. And the same happens in poker. You and I will get bluffed sometimes. You need to continue to make quality decisions without regard to any emotion you may feel. That’s where profits come from.