Mr. Unbluffable

At the Palms last night, an older gentleman was dealt A-K on his very first hand, didn't improve, but still made a heroic call of a large river bet, with a very scary board, against what turned out to be a bluffing, unimproved A-J. As the dealer pushed him the pot, he looked around the table and said, seriously, "Now you all know that I'm unbluffable." A guy at the other end of the table chuckled and said, "We'll see about that." Mr. Unbluffable got his dander up and challenged, "You just go ahead and try."

Do I even have to spell out how stupid this is, and why?

Never mind whether his initial call with the A-K hand was brilliant or folly; one could argue either way. (I.e., it was smart because he was right, or it was dumb because most of the time in that situation he would be throwing his money away.) Nobody likes to get bluffed off of the best hand. But being unbluffable is a terrible quality. It means that you make a habit of calling way too often when you have the worst of it, just to avoid losing out on the pot in case your opponent is bluffing.

Even worse than actually being unbluffable, or something close to it, is being so stupidly proud of having that defect in your game that you openly announce it to the table, and then rise to make the point even more emphatically when somebody good-naturedly questions you about it! I loved the guy throwing in the "We'll see" comment, and the response it provoked. That combination perfectly set the stage.

No, it didn't set the stage for bluffing in order to show the guy up. That might be emotionally satisfying in some sick way (and could be profitable in the long run if successful, because it would heighten Mr. Unbluffable's already exaggerated calling tendency). But the more obvious route to making money off of the guy is simply to take advantage of his habit of thinking he's being bluffed, and make larger-than-average value bets when you do actually have the goods. Bet in a way and in situations that will look to his overly-suspicious eyes as if you're trying to bluff him, then turn over the best hand when he makes what he thinks is a great call.

Poker is like judo, in that you need to use an opponent's moves against him. Maybe the hardest poker skill to develop is observing the other players in enough situational detail that you figure out their bad habits, then look for and create situations that exploit them. That task is made immeasurably easier when an idiot sits down and loudly announces exactly what the biggest weakness in his game is, and how proud he is of it.