Poker is more about reading the mind of the opponent than reading the cards. Poker is also about manipulating the opponent to suit your game and part of that manipulation is your table image or what kind of a player other players think you are.
Unless you are a clairvoyant, you would have made a mistake or a few in judging your opponents. Many people would also go through the trouble of making their intentions or their thought process known to everyone at the table, so that they might save whatever face they have after getting beat due that mistake.
When you do this, you most likely are creating a mental barrier from making such a mistake ever again. You are also telling people exactly what kind of player you are and what to expect from you; closing off playing options for yourself and also giving your opponents a psychological advantage over you.
Example hand
Consider this hand to illustrate the point. Suppose it’s late in the game and you have a relatively weak hand, lets say 6 and 10 of different suites. You’re on the blinds and everyone but the guy on the button folds. The button raises twice the big blind. Now, you already know this guy has a short stack and an loose play style. You think he would be making that raise regardless of a poor hand and it would be a good play for you to re-raise his raise to put pressure on him and steal the pot from him.
But he doesn’t cave into the pressure, he barely recognizes your big re-raise and he in turn makes a call. You figure that he hasn’t gone all-in, so he mustn’t have a very strong hand or he’s probably making a bluff just as you are trying to. You wait for the turn to discover a K, 7, and 6. You have a pair, but what does he have? Regardless, you make another raise to which your opponent responds with a re-raise. At this point, you’re not quite sure if your opponent is bluffing or actually made a hand on the turn. Anyway, you raise beyond his stack and the opponent calls.
After river, you discover that you didn’t improve your hand, your opponent had a weak hand all along—a K and a 2— and he has now doubled his stack at your expense. You read your opponent correctly that he’d play a weak hand but you misread that he would fold to pressure.
Things to avoid
So now that you’re a victim, what will you do? Will you think up an excuse to cover your mistake so that the people at the table wont think badly of you? Will you explain your thought process to every one around you in the hopes that they sympathize with you and agree with you that it wasn’t a bad play? Will you pass your poor play off as a brilliant strategy that your opponent was saved from only by his own ignorance of its nuances. Will you apologize to everyone at the table for playing such a bad play?
In any case, you’re making it clear to everyone that you made a mistake and you will never play that way again. This gives your opponents a distinct advantage when you are faced with a similar situation again. They can pull your strings now and make more daring bluffs with the reassurance that you’re least likely to repeat your “mistake.” There’s no better read on an opponent than when the opponent himself tells what kind of hands he is likely to play.
Adapting to the situation
Let’s say you don’t care what your opponents think of you. You just roll with what happened, and take it in your stride. Your opponents might think that you’re a bad player but that is their loss and your gain now.
Why? Think about the long term profitability from this. Your opponents are likely to expect this kind of play from you and if you’re not the type to make this kind of mistake often, you are effectively misleading them to think that this is the caliber of play when faced off against you. They would tend to play more loosely against you because mistakes are profitable to them and they think they can count on you to make mistakes. You can turn this to your advantage instead of making yourself predictable by telling everyone that you don’t normally make such moves.
This advantage is probably not of as much immediate value compared to what you just lost. But this is what you have. By adapting to this, you engage your mind in maximizing profit from the situation, with the additional benefit of keeping tilt and negative thoughts about yourself at bay. Now that your table image is that of a loose and bad player, you can afford to pass off your value plays as bluffs and probably strike rich. You can also use your opponent’s new-found fearlessness in calling your bets and get to see the showdown cheap when on moderate hands, among other possibilities.
To put it all together, when you are on the receiving end of a bad bluff, it’s better to go with the flow than make your playbook public by telling them exactly how you usually play. Whats happened has happened and there is money to be made from your new table image than beating yourself up over it.