Bluff in poker

Filed Under poker tips

Tags: , ,

Statistically if everyone played a perfect game without bluffing no one would ever make money playing poker. The bluff is an essential part of the game and is one of the most exciting plays you can make due to the risks involved, but knowing when and how to play it is vital to its success. New players usually play far too many hands, they often go on a tilt and chase their losses, the idea of folding a lesser hand is difficult for them to do and on the whole they will play too many games to showdown. This is not the right environment to be in for a successful bluff since you’re far more likely to get called on it. When going in against beginners to poker it’s probably better to play a tight game and take advantage of their mistakes. Players on this level are also more likely to attempt to bluff too often and will lose more often then not which leads some to believe that a successful bluff is impossible.

Intermediate and top level players are better competition for an attempted bluff. They play tight, they don’t try to take every hand to the river and they know how to conserve their chip pile by not fighting losing battles. They’re also likely to attempt a bluff themselves which makes the game all the more interesting.

When playing against the same group of players for an extended period make sure you don’t play too tight. If everyone knows you only contest the best hands they’ll get out as soon as you make an aggressive play, sure you’ll win the pot but there won’t be much pot to win. Better to let your opponents know that you’re prepared to bluff, don’t fall into the trap of playing a bad hand to the river just to advertise the fact that you’re prepared to bluff but don’t feel to bad if your bluff attempt gets caught out. Once your opponents know you’re likely to bluff from time to time they’re more likely to take you on when you really do have a killer hand which will ensure that the pot you win is that much better.

Advertising your willingness to bluff doesn’t make that much sense in the online environment since the turnover of players on your table is likely to be high. In this case bluffing to advertise is a waste since the players you’re up against now may well not be there in the next few minutes time. When bluffing in an online game play to win.

Bluffing is an aggressive move, you need to play it decisively and look sure of yourself or you’re likely to get called on it by a player who correctly reads your uncertainty. Either look and act like you’re playing the strongest hand at the table or don’t bother bluffing because you’re just setting yourself up to lose.

Finally when you’re bluffing you want to do it in a pot being contested by 3 players at the most, it’s most effective in a heads up. Trying to bluff at a table of 10 where most of the players are still in the game at the river is a suicide move since most of the players obviously feel they have a good hand and will stay in for the long haul.

Comments

Comments are closed.