I haven't played poker for quite a while and I don't know if/how much times have changed, but when I used to play back in the day there was a lot of bluffing going on especially in the tournament and sit&go matches. If you wanted to have a better chance of going further in the tournaments you had to try to double your stack as early as possible. It was basically a massive shitshow of people going all-in with all sorts of bad combinations hoping to catch a good card on the river and win the pot. Then if you somehow made it into the later stages there was the ante stealing which was mandatory in order to stop rapidly losing your chips. Sit & go games were in the same fashion only slower.
I would say, in general, bluffing happens less frequently on cash tables as regulars know each other pretty well and are less likely to use tricks over solid hands.
Nothing has changed, I prefer to play in large tournaments and sit and go tournaments and things have not changed at all, the very first hands in the large tournaments are nothing more than a lottery, but once things get more calm bluffing is mandatory but you need to adjust your play depending on the composition of the table, if the table is full of aggressive players it is better to play a very tight game, if you do you could double your chips easily.
One of my favorite plays in such a table is to check-raise when I have pocket aces since this confuses them, they see me as a passive player and they think they can easily steal my money only to realize that they have big problems, if they fold I get their money which is the equivalent of many blinds but if they call they will have the lower chances of winning, so it is a win-win for me.
