Bluffing – Part 1

Bluffing is an important part of Texas Hold ‘Em, whether you are playing Limit, No-Limit, or Pot Limit. But its importance and the ability to get away with it is very dependent on the type of game you are playing. What we mean by that is it is harder to bluff (and get away with it) in Limit and Pot Limit than it is in No-Limit, and we’ll discuss that later.

For now, the basic and most important question is: what should you do about players who bluff sometimes, but not all of the time? There’s no easy answer, but these are the players you have to look out for. Opponents who bluff some of the time are better players than those found at either end of the bluffing spectrum. Better poker players, of course, will be able to keep you guessing about whether or not they are bluffing or if they actually have a hand. Know this, when you’re forced to guess, you will be wrong some of the time. That’s just the way it is.
Of course, you might be able to pick up a “tell” and know when your opponent is bluffing, we have an article on how to pick up online tells. The truth is, however, players who keep you guessing are going to give you much more trouble than the more predictable players.

In most low-limit poker games, players bluff way too often. They do this because in a fixed limit poker game all it can cost is one additional bet to see your hand. Also, the pots are usually large enough (relative to the size of a bet) to make calling the right decision.
Even the threat of a bluff can be useful. A very good player, one who doesn’t bluff too often, or too seldom, and appears to do so only under the right conditions, has something else going for him, too. It’s the threat of a bluff. Other players will ask themselves: Does he have the winning hand or is he bluffing? How can I tell? If I can’t tell, how do I know what to do when he bets?
It is hard to know the answer to these questions, and that is exactly how you want it to be when you are bluffing. Even the best players are going to guess wrong in many cases. As a result, the threat of a bluff, combined with the bluff itself, is designed to help you win some pots that you would otherwise lose.

The trick is this: If you bluff occasionally in the game and then you have the best hand and come out betting, your opponent won’t know if you’re bluffing or not. If there’s a lot of money in the pot, and he thinks you are bluffing, he’ll probably call. This is called a trap, and it works if done correctly. It is cheaper for him to think that you are bluffing and pay the next bet, than to fold a hand that he might think is the winning hand.
Bluffing and the threat of bluffing go hand in hand. A bluff can enable a player to win a pot he figured to lose if the hands were shown. The threat of a bluff enables a player with a good poker hand to win more money than he would if his opponent knew he never bluffed.
A successful poker player has to adopt a middle-ground poker strategy. You don’t want to bluff too often, but, likewise, it is a mistake to not bluff at all. Only you can decide what that perfect level is for you and your style of play.

There’s a relationship between risk and reward. If you are never caught bluffing, you are either the best poker bluffer in the history of poker or you are not bluffing enough. On the other hand, if you are caught almost every time you try to bluff, you’re probably bluffing too much or you have a “tell”.
Understand also that it is very important to know who you are bluffing against. A very tight player, one who does not like to call raises unless he has a very good hand, will often fold if you raise to him. But this is best done when it is only you and he left playing—the other players having already folded.

Also remember, that your bluff raise needs to be enough to scare him off. If it is a low raise, he will probably call—or at least consider calling you, and what you want is for him to fold.

Lastly, and this important, if you raise on a bluff and your opponent re-raises you, you should consider folding. It is entirely possible that he has you trapped! The last thing you want is to get into a betting battle with someone when you have only a weak hand. This is not a hard and fast rule, sometimes you can re-raise the raise, but be very, very careful when attempting to do that and do it only if you feel you can scare your opponent off.

Learning to bluff is best done in play money games. You can learn a lot and gain a lot of experience that will carry over when you begin playing real money games.

Hope this helps.