Bluff in Poker

A risky tactic, bluffing in poker is not something to apply regularly. But for that extraordinary chance to take down a big pot at poker night, you might just be able to bluff your way through, to get everyone to fold by how you bet, not by saying much. It's a part of the game too see what turns up. But, low stakes, called "no fold-em" poker, is hard to bluff, where people are playing for just a few dollars, the money risked is too low. Here are some suggestions for successful bluffing in poker with somewhat higher stakes, with most examples from "Texas-Hold-em", such as seen on TV cable sports channels, but they can apply to any game of poker.

Steps

1. Understand the stakes. Realize that casino poker can be "no limit" (NL) and have extreme risks. Also, you have to chip-in/pay to play, and the price goes up as the number of players dwindle in the tournament. But "friendly" poker can have the expected outcome go wrong and cause you to lose your stack, (to say nothing of ruining your credit, when borrowing to pay gambling debts) and possibly lose face/your-reputation! By betting money into a pot that you know you're not likely to win, you're taking big risks (and, if you fold your bet/wagered money stays in the pot). On the other hand, sometimes opportunity strikes and looks so winnable, and the other players so "bluffable", that it seems worth such risk. Have your limits, strategy and backdoor. It is worth understanding from the outset that bluffing is a lot less common than shown in movies; in most cases especially with a large table of players, you do need to have good cards because someone at the table will often want to play to a final showdown since someone will have good cards in that large pool of players.
   • In tournaments avoid bluffing someone with a shorter stack who will be looking to get more money by betting strongly/and even going all in -- and, also, you avoid deeper stacks that can afford to "look you up" (call your bet/bluff). Medium stacks are the ideal target because they are less desperate, and more likely to play conservatively and fold when you bluff strongly; so, you win more often there.
   • Bluff not only when it's worth doing so, but also when the stakes are high; bluffing works well in high stakes when you have a middle or better stack, and the pressure's on all the shorter stacks to catch up to the leaders or fizzle, and they may go for bust with a weak hand, hoping to bluff-out anyone with a medium or bigger stack!
   • Talented poker players acquire their skill from thousands upon thousands of hands of experience; such as playing for practice online. If you continue to play poker with discipline and an open mind, your chances of bluffing successfully should increase consistently. A good bluffer has a constant attitude, either a fun personality or a never changing poker-face, and "makes the attitude seem real".
   • The successful bluff is one where nobody knows you bluff, because all the opponents fold/give-up before the last chance to bet, and you win the pot by default. If there is a showdown (where you must show your cards), you will be shown-up as a bluffer, if you are seen betting big with a weak or trash hand. You normally only want to get into a showdown when you have pretty good cards, except getting caught once may be okay; so, be ready to use your backdoor (so fold), before the showdown when you have a weak/or trash hand!
2. Understand how to read the tells. "Tells" are important - they're the analyzing side of playing poker. Not only does a good knowledge of tells tell when someone else is bluffing, but knowing common signs of bluffing will help you to try to avoid your own unconscious giveaway signs. And listen to other's advice about when they say that they think you're bluffing; being consciously aware of your subconscious tells can be used to your advantage by acting "bluff" tells when you want someone to think you're bluffing, but you actually have a great hand!
   • Watch how chips are put down. They can be placed down gently, counted down, banged down, slid forward, etc. If a player bets his chips very strong and far away from himself, it can mean that subconsciously their chips are going away from them, like they might be bluffing. On the other hand, a person betting closer to themselves can subconsciously mean that the money is expected to be coming back to them.
   • Watch the body language. Look for eye twitches, lip movements, scratching, flaring nostrils, holding of breath, and hand movements (such as covering parts of the face, differently than usual). All of these things can indicate bluffing.
   • Shaking is considered to be a sign of strength, expecting to win a pot.
   • When your opponent acts really strong they are likely weak/and bluffing. Staring you down whilst you act, splashing the pot, or faking a big smile when a certain card hits are all common signs of bluffing.
   • Watch other players to learn the tells when they're bluffing. Learn good tricks from those who bluff well.
3. Develop the proverbial poker face. Keen instincts and sharp intellect must be combined with the ability to show no inconsistent emotion, or reveal nothing other than casual, fun involvement in the game. Look carefully at the corner of your two hold cards slowly/casually, keeping them face down, where only you can possibly see. Don't spill any information; so, keep your face "deadpan," and wear shades to have the eyes as expressionless as stone and restrain blinking and shifting nervously when you see your cards -- and when the community cards are dealt each time. Avoid expressing approval or disapproval as if seeing good/bad cards (act the same way all the time as part of your poker face) - this is crucial if you're playing face to face.
   • Consider using props/concealment. Cowboys in the Wild West used to use their hats to cover their faces. In the age of televised poker, novelty props such as Make a Funny Hat, spooky glasses, and fancy wear can turn a player's chosen image into a big business affiliated product.
   • A beard, neck scarf, hoodie and sunglasses can work to cover your face, and neck. Not only the face but the neck can show tension or relaxing, a change in the pattern of your breathing or blushing/flushing.
4. Begin bluffing. If you bet pre-flop, you may seem to represent a pair or other good cards in your hold, and get players to commit or fold their hold cards. Then you can raise on the flop to press those who are still left to bet/commit or fold. If you are playing too loosely, trying to look strong, you can seem false/like you are bluffing. So, don't bet pre-flop very often or you won't look real.
5. Count how many players are betting in the hand. Your chances of successfully bluffing are greater with fewer opponents because you have fewer people to drive out of the pot. Bluffing one or two players is more profitable/workable than bluffing-out three or more players.
6. Win at Betting, or raise someone else's bet, in the first round of betting, before the flop (the first 3 community cards). Do not bet too much, and don't raise an already large bet. If you think someone else probably has a great hand, fold, and play another hand later, as a path of escape/concealment.
7. Consider checking when good cards hit you, if checking is available, either on the flop or on the turn to act casually (checking is not available when someone has a bet that you must call/raise or fold/abandon the pot). Making a reasonable bet, as it goes around the table for everyone to either bet or fold, makes you seem real. Be seen holding good cards at showdown, win or lose, or occasionally turnover your good cards when people suggest they think that you win by bluffing. So, build a reputation of consistently betting good hands to make your opponents believe that you probably have another pretty good hand when you are betting moderately. So, they think that you are logically trying to get as many chips into the pot, out of their stacks as you can. It takes guts to carry out the consistent pattern to set up a few good bluffs, because you could be up against a better hand, but if it's done right it can work pretty often, with luck, and if you stay alert enough to know when to fold to save your stack.
8. Remember that the bet following/on the river (the 5th community card) is the most important. This one must be powerful and intimidating. When the opponent checks, and then it comes to you, you can place a large bet to get the opponent to call or fold. If a player bets in front of you, there are two things you can do. If s/he bets small, your making a significantly larger bet might push him/her to fold. However, if the opponent makes a large, bluff-like bet, your best chance to bluff would be to call (less risk) -- or go all in, especially if you have a lot more chips than the other player. Consider, it is better to push all-in by betting than by calling, since you want to look strong to have more impact. The best feeling in poker is deciding someone is bluffing and taking down a large pot with a bluff of your own, causing the first bluffer to fold, and no one ever knows whether either or both of you were bluffing.
   • The turn card is also very important. If you bet big on the turn when you've been betting moderately earlier, players can be more intimidated. If you think you've actually won the hand on the turn card, you may even want to just check, and then bet like crazy on the river. People are more likely to make/call a big bet, if you checked before, thinking you might be weak/bluffing. This works even better, if you've been (accidentally?) caught bluffing earlier.
9. Suggest a pattern, playing a clean mind game/like a story with your bets, calls/raises. Though, doing nothing special is likely to win a hand when everything is going right. Still, experienced players, can win pretty often when nothing is going right by representing (as if) having the goods, by playing, but not by lying. If you are seen as being a consistent liar, people will ignore your bluff, and few (or no one) will be scared by your bluff. Play "tight"/seeming real, conservative (not loose) most often, then go strong, convincingly at the opportune moment; so your opponent gets "that sick, losing feeling" -- believing you have another good hand, fearing and avoiding a big risk, and so they fold (that's how a bluff can work). No matter how much advice you've followed from this article, a sudden river (5th Street) bet will not tell a cohesive story on its own, to lead people to believe the suggestion you make.
   • For example: Let's say you raise pre-flop, and then bet hard again on a flop of 9-3-J. Your opponent might have thought you were representing a pocket pair (a pair in your hold) by the pre-flop bet -- and now think you probably have a pair of 9s or Jacks on the flop because you bet. But if instead, the turn brings a 3 and you bet again, your opponent could be scared that you are on trip 3s, if you hadn't raised pre-flop, only to turn around and bet hard on 3s, a "bottom pair," on the flop. A savvy opponent, with a made hand, could simply call your bets/bluff and rake in the pot. Pay attention to the sequence of cards (to represent a possible straight), suite/color (a possible flush) on the flop and watch how the betting unfolds. Try to represent having a certain/specific hand by having an attitude, good reputation, and being consistent with your betting pattern.
   • Make a bluff when cards are dealt that will possibly have weakened your opponents hand. If your opponent has called on a J-7-2 flop and the turn brings a 7, then this is not a good time to bluff as any pair your opponent may hold will still be as strong as before but he probably doesn't have trip 7s. If instead of 7 the turn comes down a K, then it is not looking so good now because some one (maybe you) may have paired Ks on the flop; so they are more likely to fold Js or 7s, if you betted/bluffed as if you may now have a pair of Kings. Then if they fold, you take the pot without a showdown. But, if instead of K the turn were any lower number card, then their possible pair of J or 7 would still be looking pretty good to your opponent. And, if you bet after seeing a weak turn card, they won't likely fold, because of your playing on the weak turn card is not scary to anyone. You need to decide to fold, if your opponent raised here or for sure on the River, if you're cards are a weak or trash hand, to avoid being caught...
10. Keep bluffing under your hat: Maintain/conceal the bluff on a weak hand. After the river bets (and, oops!, opponent[s] didn't fold), don't show your "iffy" cards. Say, "Let's see your winning cards," and when the winner turns over his cards, just chirp, "You win!" If he insists to see your hand, "No, let's see you hand; I think you got it."; you won't need to prove anything about your story.
    • You insist, "You got it. You win" They win by default, anyway, if you "discard the cards face-down" without showing how relatively weak or strong you were. Just, chuckle, and leave them guessing, trying to never show a shaky hand...
    • But, if you had a nice hand/not good enough. You could after moderate resistance, finally, show them, [sigh] "See, it was good, okay?" That's fun and proves you are betting strong, maybe.

Poker Help

Doc:Poker Hands Cheat Sheet,Ways to Improve at Poker,Types of Poker Games

Tips

• Don't bluff too often. It is essential that the other players think you only play pretty good hands; so they believe your bluff is real, by the pattern you have shown before.
• You don't have to show your cards, if everyone else folds. You can take the pot and leave everyone to wonder what you had. This is almost always advisable, to maintain looking real if you bluffed with weak cards.
• The basic bluff goes like this: You have nothing. Your opponents may have nothing. You bet. They fold. Sometimes it's difficult even to make people throw away an inside straight (where the missing card is in the middle of the four on the table). They keep hoping. Know your opponents. Everyones chances of hitting a four-card open straight is twice as likely, because it has a place open at either end to complete the hand; for example, a hand of 4-5-6-7 can use either a 3 on the left end or an 8 at the other to complete the straight. But, an inside straight only has one space somewhere in the middle that must be filled to complete the hand; 4--6-7-8 needs a 5 and nothing else to become a straight (half as likely).
• A mistake a novice will make: if you watch the players on your table, you can spot the novice quickly just by certain community cards they play, or the way they play certain cards, for example:
  • Player gets dealt a big ace (AK); when the flop appears they hit none of their hoped for cards, then make the dreaded mistake of calling big bets still hoping to hit on the turn, and they miss their needed cards completely on the turn as well, but for some strange reason continue to call bets. They don't realize that only a high card hand is pretty weak without a pair, flush or straight, because any made hand beats a AK high hand. The golden rule is know when you're beat and fold! Of course, a pro is going to play AK, too -- but he is going to pop it pretty good pre-flop to get heads up, preferably so people suspect he has a pocket pair, then nothing hits, but he still has the bluff, because he made believers by betting hard pre-flop, with a good reputation.
  • This mistake is not just based on (AK), but many novice players doing the same thing with an ace and any second card. An ace is only good if you can make use of it, if the ace high you have been dealt doesn’t make a real hand then fold, if you don't feel like bluffing.
• Learn how to calculate with a particular hand and use this information to inform your play. Of course, that means either when you go to the showdown -- or else that you might get everyone to convince themselves that you probably do have the goods; so that they all fold pretty good hands to your unseen hot hand.
• Some flops (three of a kind for example) lend themselves towards bluffing (betting with nothing) or semi-bluffing (over-betting your hand). For a flop to be "bluffable" it must be rare and there must be a small number of ways to win. Three queens on the table in the flop is a perfect example. There will be anxiety about who may have the 4th queen or has a pocket pair. Here there is no fear of a flush because the 3 queens had 3 different colors. Fear and risk of the opponent are a bluffer's best friends because experienced poker players look for easy/safe money. In this case (on the flop) it is best to bluff in "early position" just past the starting player; so, if you in early position want to bluff, you can check and wait, then make a bluff on the turn, after some more will have folded, and the ones left may think you hit a good hand on the turn.
• Bluffing is easier with a small pot on the table because no one really wants to risk much for it with you. They think to themselves, "alright, if he has something good, he'll win. If he doesn't, I might win -- but, no, it's not worth the risk for the small payoff." Although it doesn't seem like much money, it can be your edge to build your stack, if you can do it pretty often and well enough.
• Try to remember how/what pattern each player bets! Each player tends to have a pattern to their betting based on what hand they have (as you're analyzing that), and what they think others do or don't have, by what others do, and by what is in the flop. It is easiest to pay attention to think about their strategy when you are "not" actually playing a hand (i.e. you have already folded).
• Conversely, it's generally not a good idea to bluff, if a lot of people see the flop/too many are playing right then. There is a very good chance that someone in the group could have made at least a pair or trips on the flop (the average winning hand in 10-handed hold'em). It will take a very strong bet and strong reputation to scare away someone with a real hand at such a large table.
• It is a mistake to think that there are no mathematics involved in bluffing. It is mathematically a good idea to bluff when you're in late position, only if most have folded, leaving you up against only one or two opponents still active in the pool going into the flop. That small pool guarantees that no one has any good idea of what the other person has yet. In other words it's a high risk bet for everyone early in the hand. "Betting strong into a high risk pot" is known as a bad poker strategy; so, if a young/inexperienced player bets here, he is probably bluffing (raise him to see how he reacts and how he continues) -- but if the player is older and better, you may trust his bet is backed up with at least something (so fold if you have a weak hand). Keep in mind that an early position player with very good cards might try to draw a big bluff from you by checking at first, if he knows such strategy. That's part of the game of bluffing.
• To clock a good player, watch their betting structure. They may tend to mix their play up a lot, for example, they enter a pot with a raise with a big pocket pair (of course you don't know, but you have seen them go to showdown, with good cards), and then they could make the same level of bet in a similar position a few hands later with only suited connectors (like pocket 9-8 diamonds because now they're looking for some more color on the flop in hope of a flush or a possible straight). Their experience and strategy tends to throw you off the read/scent of a hand so that when you end up betting face-to-face with a good player, you, as the opponent, have to fold or take a chance that your opponent is weak/bluffing.
• For this reason, which seems counter-intuitive on it's face, it may be a better read whether to bluff a good player than a novice; a good player would generally be more consistently logical and may have raised by the time you are ready to bluff, alerting you to not bluff here and pick a better spot, if they are representing having the goods. But a novice is harder to read because s/he has seen too much movie/TV drama poker, and suspects every big bet is a bluff, and so he'll go hard to take you to the dead-end/showhown to call your suspected bluff.
• One fundamental requirement for successful bluffing is a table with other players who are thinking about what cards you have. In many homespun, low stakes/"No fold them" (low risk) Hold'em games, the players often don't think much about what you have but are mostly thinking about their own hands; in these games, a bluff will rarely work, since low stakes are not scary/not risking much.
• Know your game. Can you tell when one player is going to take the pot without showing his hand (everyone gets out)? That player had to scare the others off by seeming real in the situation. Bluffing involves recognizing how to set up that kind of situation by exploiting your good reputation, and others' fear and the amount risked.
• A good player knows when to fold, when to throw away those pocket aces on the river to possible flushes and straights (depending on the amount of color and tight pattern of cards on the table).
  • Too many novice players tend to call on the river with a fairly weak hand because s/he doesn't calculate from looking at the pattern of what their opponent does and what that may indicate, they just see their own two hold cards, and bet them with a passion, against all unknown/unsuspected odds.

Warnings

• Never play too loose. Playing really-tight might be like usually only playing when you have pairs, from 6s up to As, and play ace-high hands AK down to AJ, and you bet only within those limits, otherwise you fold But, of course, that is saying nothing of when you might bluff, or how you "read tells" for when someone has a better hand than you or when s/he is bluffing you.
• Never "Play out of your bankroll". Play inside it. When you play higher limits with a great chance of losing all of your poker money quickly, you would be playing "out of your bankroll." If you don't have enough to bankroll "300" buy-ins for Limit Hold'em games/tournaments, then you are out of your bankroll.. Notice that means you would risk less than 1/2% of you available money; so, playing remains a game not an act of desperation. Don't go for broke. Work up to where you can afford your ventures.
  • Avoid variance in poker -- "runs of bad results or good results in betting". A player who bets a lot (a high percent) of pots will be playing loose (playing more weak hands), and so he will face more variance than a tight player who plays a low percentage of hands (i.e.: usually bets pretty good hands).

Things You'll Need

• Playing cards
• Poker chips
• Bankroll management (real or play money) for the kind of game/tournament

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• Get Poker Chips
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• Win at Online Poker
• Cheat at Poker
• Become a Good Poker Player
• Have a Good Poker Face

Sources and Citations

• Part information sourced from Videojug, How To Spot Tells And Bluffs In Texas Hold'em Poker, http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-spot-tells-and-bluffs-in-texas-holdem-poker.

See also

• Get a Job Dealing Poker
• Keep a Poker Face in a Game of Poker
• Get Poker Chips
• Shuffle and Deal Texas Holdem
• Calculate Pot and Hand Odds in Limit Hold 'Em Poker
• Play Poker
• Cheat at Poker
• Play Texas Hold'em
• Organize a Charity Poker Tournament
• Tell if Someone Is Lying in Poker

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What links here

• Become a Good Poker Player
• Calculate Pot and Hand Odds in Limit Hold 'Em Poker
• Create a Gangster Bankroll
• Play LCR
• Play Texas Hold'em
• Shuffle and Deal Texas Holdem
• Tell if Someone Is Lying in Poker
• Win at Online Poker
• Get Poker Chips
• Keep a Poker Face in a Game of Poker