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Bluffing is actually the one factor that turns poker into a true game of skill. Bluffing is the act of raising the pot in a round of poker in the hopes of making other players fold, without actually having a good hand to back up the bets and/or raise(s).
For example, playing with a group of friends you’re dealt a pair of two’s - but there’s no-one else raising on the table, so you raise the maximum amount and fake a quick smirk as if impressed with your hand. The 2 people left on the table decide to cut their losses rather than feed the pot and fold. You win with a lowly pair and rake in the pot. That’s bluffing.
Why Should Someone Bluff?
Assuming proper poker strategy is played, bluffing is actually the one factor that turns poker into a true game of skill. It serves two main purposes:
- It allows you to win hands even when you’re not dealt a "winning" hand.
- It allows you to win bigger pots when you are dealt a winning hand.
Lets explain. As in the example above, you can see how it’s possible to win a pot even when you’re dealt squat - there are times when the players around you don’t have much of a hand either and would rather fold and cut their losses than for the win.
Of course, you don’t have to have an awful hand to bluff - you’re just assuming that you don’t have the best hand at the table (if you think you have the best hand, you’re not bluffing now are you?
You’ll need to bluff occasionally to get bigger pots out of the table. It’s simple actually, if you only raise when you’ve got a good hand - it doesn’t take long for other players to notice and act accordingly. Sure, your good hands will still win the pot, but if everyone folds on your first raise you won’t be winning much - so players need to believe you’re at least capable of bluffing.
But that’s the beauty of bluffing - you can do it so many ways. You can act like someone that doesn’t bluff and then turn into one that does, and watch people fold on your worst hands. You can intentionally bluff too much then watch everyone feed the pot not knowing you have four aces in your hand.
No single bluffing technique will work at any given time, it depends on who you’re playing with and whether they’ve caught on! Try to mix up your strategy before people get wise to you.
How To Bluff
There’s no denying that there’s more intricacies to bluffing when you’re playing with people face to face, as your gestures, demeanor and what you say can all play a part in your bluffing strategy (or determining other peoples bluffing habits).
When playing online poker you don’t get to "see" people, so bluffing is reduced to your actions on bets and raises throughout multiple hands. Still - it plays an essential part of any poker game, so be sure to make it part of your game, online or off.
Some Bluffing Tips
Don’t be too predictable. In some cases you’ll want to appear predictable to get players doing what you want, but if you don’t change your habits from time to time you’ll start losing fast.
Bluffing doesn’t usually work when there’s a packed table of people still in on the hand. Don’t expect 5 other players to fold, chances are someone has a good enough hand to stay in. People are less likely to fold in split pot games like Hi/Lo because they’ve got a better chance of winning half the pot than they would in a "winner takes all" game.
This is especially true for Hi/Lo, when many players will qualify for a low hand. Bluff accordingly. Know when to fold’em. It’s inevitable that you won’t win every hand that you’ve bluffed on - sometimes your opponents will have strong enough hands to stay in no matter how much you raise.
It’s a bad habit to fold every time a player raises your bluff (unless you want people to know every time you’re bluffing). At the same time, it’s bad for your stack of poker chips to follow all your hands through when it’s obvious you’re going to lose. |