A Short Guide to Bluffing

Ok, so we already have some articles that cover the subject of bluffing, but they have tended to be fairly in-depth, so here is a simplified guide to bluffing:                

 

You probably already know, and certainly so if you have read any of our poker articles, it takes more to win a game of poker than a smile from lady-luck. In order to win successfully, particularly when playing poker online, you definitely need any edge you can get, and bluffing is one such way of achieving it.

 

The following section of this article will introduce you to several different features of bluffing, and the know-how to perform them, as well as knowing how to perceive when an opponent is in bluff.

 

 

Defining bluffing:

Basically, bluffing is a technique that players can employ to get the upper hand, beyond the actual hand that they may be holding. Players use it when they are trying to disguise their hand to other players; usually they are trying to make their opponents believe they have a winning hand.

 

Many people who are not familiar with the game of poker usually fixate on this aspect of the game, it seems to be the trademark strategy of poker. However, it is actually a very small part of the game. Nevertheless, it can still be an important part of the game and for anyone with a keen interest in winning would do well to have a basic understanding of the art of bluffing.

 

Without strategies like bluffing, poker might even be a boring game, because, in the long run, if no one ever bluffed, the cards would tend to break-even in the long-run. If you took away bluffing from the game, save for the stupidity of players, the winning hand would win the game every time, with bluffing, this is not the case. No one would ever win the massive amounts of money that we see won today; the game would be far too predictable.

 

Fundamentally, bluffing is just a form of deception, and deception is the key ingredient for winning a game of poker. In other words, if all the opponents sat around a poker table knew the cards of their opponents then it would be hard to beat the good hands. So, bluffing is an essential skill for anyone who wants to play the game well.

 

Type of Bluffs:

There are many different types of bluff, and the type that you employ in the game will depend on the cards that you have in hand, the cards you believe your opponents to have, and what you believe that they think you have. Another consideration is where you are playing, in an online casino or a bricks-and-mortar casino.

 

The following is a list and explanation of the three basic types of bluff:

 

The bet/raise with a bad hand: When playing this type of bluff, you must have a really bad hand, but you are trying to convey to your opponents that you have a strong hand. The technique can be reversed too; you convey to your opponent that you have a weak hand when you have a strong hand. The reason for this type of bluff is to ensure that your opponents stay in the game for as long as possible, and thus continue to bet, therefore increasing the size of the pot.

 

 

The bet/raise when it does not cost much to undertake: This type of bluff is used in order for a player to receive a ‘free card’ later in the hand, when the cost of doing so is normally double

 

N.B. A free card is: A free card refers to seeing the turn or river card without having to make/call a bet. Example: Suppose you have a T9 of spades, and you are on the button. The flop is AK4; the ace and king are of spades. It is checked to you, and you check as well. The turn comes. The turn card is a free card; you did not have to call a bet to see if you would complete your flush draw on the turn.

 

The semi-bluff bet: When you make a bet in semi-bluff, then there are two different ways in which you can win the round if you manage to pull it off successfully.

 

1. You have an opponent who thinks that you, the bluffer, have the hand that you are implying you have, and they then fold their hand as a consequence.
2. When an opponent calls, you, as the bluffer, may manage to get the card that your opponent is looking for and this leads you to a win.

 

 

When you bet with a semi-bluff, what you are essentially doing is betting with a hand that, if it is called, is not necessarily a pat hand (“Pat hand n., adj.   A completed hand, pair or better. With two cards to come, he was already pat with a full house”)  or guaranteed to win you the round at that point in the game, but will be given a reasonable chance of out drawing the hand that was called in the first place.

 

The Importance of being earnest (no actually, deceitful):

Ok, this section is about the importance of bluffing, the earnest bit is just a little bit of self-indulgence by the author.

 

One thing that you will need to realise straightaway, and if you haven’t yet, need to realise right now, is that some players never use the bluffing technique. The great thing about this, is that once you can identify who these players are, you will easily beat them, and this means $$$$$. If such a player bets once all the cards in the round have been dealt, then you know that you are up against a good hand. Once you know this, if you have a weak hand, then you know it is time to fold, but if you think you have a good hand, then you can carry on and play, if you think you have a better hand then you should raise.

 

Conversely, there are other players that bluff all the time. When they make their bets, the best course of action is to call if you are holding any good hand. However, if the player bluffs frequently, it usually means that once in a while they will actually have a good hand, but the fact that they bluff a lot makes your decision making simpler. The reason being that, over the course of time, by calling them you will win more money than you would save by folding each time, you may lose some hands, but overall, when playing against a serial bluffer you will come out on top. Many online players are like this, they bluff a lot.

 

Bear in mind that there are no simple answers when it comes to a player who bluffs intermittently. This type of bluffing style can be difficult to manage, as the players are hard to read. Players who use this technique are usually highly accomplished poker players. They are usually better than those players who bluff all the time, or those who never bluff. The main reason is that they are unpredictable and will keep you on your toes. Because it is a constant guessing game, you will definitely be wrong some of the time. This is unavoidable.

 

Where possible, try to document the playing styles of different players, take note of their physical gestures when they are undertaking certain moves, as they can be used to identify the same move in the future, and you will be more likely to have an understanding of when they are bluffing.

 

Another key point to be aware of is that players in low cost games bluff with a lot more frequency than players in higher cost games, as they do not lose as much money when they lose. For example, when you play a low limit game, your opponents will only risk the cost of an additional wager simply to try and establish whether their opponents are bluffing. That said, the pots are usually quite large in proportion to the size of the wager, this means that making a call at the critical moment is the right course of action to take.

 

Bluffing dangers:

 

The majority of the time, the simple danger that there may be a bluff in play is just as important as an actual bluff itself. You will find that an online goldilocks player, one who bets not too often and not too little, but just right, has the danger of bluffing on their side. You will be hard pushed to work out whether this person is bluffing or not, and they will constantly have people folding as they run scared from the potential bluff. If this is you, then you must be a good player.

 

You can turn this to your advantage and become a super-bluff-poker-star, combining the danger of bluffing with bluffing itself means that you will be able to win more pots that you otherwise would be able to. Additionally, you win more money from pots in which your opponents might have the best hand, but you bluffed in such a convincing way that they folded their hand completely.

 

Danger of bluffing and bluffing itself go hand in hand, like birds of a feather. The bluff helps win a pot that may otherwise be lost, and the danger of the bluff allows a player with a good hand to win more money than if the player’s opponents did not think they had bluffed, because it is easier to increase the size of the pot- as I said earlier, if you never bluff the pot never gets big, even when you have a good hand because your opponents know that you have a good hand otherwise you would not be in the round.

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