True, but without bluffing at all you can't win the game, right?
Well, what is a bluff in the end ? Part of poker is also reading your opponent. If you are good at it and have some indication, that your opponent has a rather weak hand (while you yourself have 72o), and you outplay him, I wouldn't call it a bluff per se. You just played the hand of your opponent in that case and didn't care about your hand.
At the final table in a tournament you might be down to 5 players and of course you loosen your range a bit then. An ok-ish hand like T9 is much more valuable against 4 players than it is against 8 players.
And position play is also a huge factor. Imagine you sitting on the button and everyone folding in front of you. You have Q8 and your opponent at SB has the exact same hand. You make a raise of 3BB to a) steal the blinds and if that doesn't work, you b) still have a playable hand. The small blind will most likely fold then, besides having the exact same hand. Now if you switch positions, you would be the one folding. You need a strong(er) hand to counter aggressiveness than you need to have to be the aggressor. Being aggressive with average to weak-ish hands is not bluffing then (for me), it's just taking advantage of the psychological dynamics and/or your ability to read your opponents.
But in the very end, you often have to pretend to have a strong hand while you maybe have not and we can call that bluffing, yes. And it's needed to win in poker, you can't have good hands all the time.
Maybe @Steamtyme could chime in and share his thoughts about bluffing.
Imo, mixing the two, aggressiveness and firmness, is a good idea. What do you think?
Mixing your game is always good of course, because it makes it harder for your opponents to read you. The problem is, if you are a naturally born tight player, it's hard to be an aggressive player too AND be good at it. That is why I often say, you should mainly do the things you are comfortable with, but try to improve other areas step by step.
Agreed. Yet, being helped mentally is a good advantage, when it comes to poker, right?
Yes, sure. Being financially well positioned helps with a lot of things. Not only poker, betting, working in general, but it gets you rid of a lot of mental headache as well.