Bluffing
and Bluff Poker
Remember all those great scenes
in the movies where a whole table full of players get
fooled into folding by one person who ends up to be
holding nothing? Isn’t that great? Of course it
is! But be careful: bluffing can be exciting, but it
can get you into trouble if you don’t do it properly.
There are a few points in a game
when it’s wisest to try and bluff your opponents,
and a few when it isn’t.
Bluff!
A good time to try is when most
of the other players have folded and it’s just
you and a couple of people left in the hand, simply
because it’s easier to fool one or two people
than five or six. The downside here is that it’s
a pretty obvious trick, and most people are aware of
it, so there’s less of a chance that they’ll
fall for it. If you’re playing against tight players,
start your bluffing in the flop or the pre-flop to scare
them off; chances are they’ll fold quickly. However,
you wont win any big pots this way, and if one of these
players starts betting, considering getting out of the
hand quick: tight players always bet for a reason, and
you might end up beat by a monster hand. If you bet
big in the pre-flop in the hopes of a helpful flop,
and you don’t get it, you may be able to fool
your opponents into thinking you DID pull the good cards
with a little creative behavior. And if you just won
a hand with seriously good cards and smart playing,
play your next hand in the same fashion and they may
think you’ve pulled another big hand and fold
to you.
Don’t
Bluff!
NEVER bluff just for the
sake of bluffing: it’s a skill of its own that
should be used at the right times. If you’ve just
been caught in a bluff, if you’ve been losing
a lot of hands, when there are a lot of players still
in the game, or if you’re just not that good at
it, don’t try to bluff: it’ll only backfire
on you.
Keep in mind, though, that these
are pretty common tips on bluffing, and there’s
a good chance that the people you’re playing against
are all very aware of them, too, so make sure you know
your opponents well before you try fooling them.
The
Busted Flush Draw Bluff
Players love to chase flush draws
online, so much so that they often commit to heavily
to them and are forced to bluff at the pot when they
don’t hit. The flop comes down K,4,2 with two
hearts, you have A,K (no hearts) you make a pot size
bet and your opponent just calls. The turn comes 9(not
a heart) you make another pot size bet, your opponent
just calls again. The river brings an 8 (no heart) you
make another large bet but your opponent goes “all
in” over the top of your bet…. This is an
obvious “busted flush bluff” attempt; you
should certainly call the all in for this scenario.
The only hand to worry about in this situation would
be pocket Kings because your significant preflop raise
will have made smaller pocket pairs fold. The likelihood
of the player having pocket Kings when you are holding
one is very very slim.
The
Blatant Over-Bet
This is a fairly common bluff attempt
as players tend to get overly committed to hands like
AQ, AK, JJ, and AK suited. You are holding A10 soooooted
and the flop comes 10, 5, 2 (rainbow) you make a pot
size bet and your opponent calls. The turn brings a
7, you make another sizeable bet and your opponent goes
all in over the top of you (resulting in a much larger
than pot sized bet). The only 2 hands that concern me
here are JJ or possibly a weakly played QQ, the reasoning
here is that if they had AA or KK they should be reraising
preflop. More times than not the player will hold two
over cards such as AK, AQ or AJ. There is a chance that
the player will spike the J,Q,K but that will only be
about 15% of the time.
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