Bluffing

Bluffing can be a great way to fool your opponents into thinking you have a strong poker hand leading them to fold and allowing you to collect “the pot.” We recommend throwing in a bluff every now and then to keep the table honest, however we don’t recommend that you rely on this method as your sole way of winning at the game of poker. Always muck hands as well, so nobody knows when you bluff, how often you bluff, etc so they don’t pick up on the timeliness of your bluffing strategy.

Check out the bluffing strategies listed below for more great ideas on when to bluff and when not to bluff in your poker action:

  • Focus on weak players. It’s a great strategy to bluff vs. players who show weaknesses by checking rather than playing against players who appear to be strong and only seem to call/bet/raise when they have strong hands.
  • Avoid bluffing early on when you have a garbage hand and there are still more cards to be dealt. Try semi bluffing instead which may force your opponents to fold or allow you to hit your draw.
  • Don’t try to bluff your way through too many players. Playing the bluffing game vs. one or two guys is ok, but anymnore than that and the odds start stacking up against you.
  • Understand that bluffing won’t work all the time and that is ok. Keep in mind that your risking one bet with the potential to win a pot full of bets, hence it only needs to work some of the time to be effective.
  • If you’re playing in a game full of poker experts, avoid bluffing “too much.” Many poker pros are familiar with poker hand probabilities/odds and will catch on if your doing it too much. Guys know how often players should play hands and if your doing it too much, your giving yourself away and blowing strategy.
  • Don’t bluff just to bluff. Only do so when you feel that you have a legit shot of winning. While this is easy to understand while sitting at the poker table, it’s a bit hard to explain in words. You will know what we’re talking about when the time arises. A good rule of thumb would be to always play into situations that have more probability than non probability.
  • The best bluffs (in our opinion) happen after a round in which all of your opponents have checked. This obviously doesn’t always hold to be true, but works well over the long run and the long run is what you should be keeping in mind. This works best in late rounds, especially the river. Keep in mind that early on, this theory may be blown if there are more cards to be dealt as this could obviously result in other players catching cards to make decent hands.
  • Always give the image that you’re a tight player. Your bluffs are much more likely to be successful if other players perceive you as tight and aggressive rather than loose or a novice player.

We hope that you have enjoyed our bluffing strategies and tips. Now that you’ve read our bluffing tips and are ready to take on the competition, have you ever considered playing at one of the oldest online poker rooms on the web? Check out paradise poker which has oodles of players playing online at any given time assuring that you’ll ALWAYS be able to find a game/dollar amount to suit your needs!