Players bluff their way out when the hand they have doesn’t stand a chance of winning the pot. For example, player A has three 6s and two 4s, while player B has a flush higher than the former. Even if player A doesn’t know what kind of hand player B has he’s already expecting his opponent to have the better hand all because his hand is probably the worst. So instead of folding player A decides to raise his bet, which player B will think that his opponent has a good hand. Now if player B feels that his hand may not be good enough to take on player A’s bet then he folds and player A gets the pot. Simply put, bluffing is pretending you have a great hand, when you don’t, so that your opponents will be intimidated into folding and letting you take the pot.

So bluffing at poker is a little like lying because you’re pretending to have something that you clearly do not have, but not all people—even though most of us are experienced when it comes to lying—can bluff effectively. Bluffing is not just something you can do when you’re playing poker. You have to study it carefully and employ it only when the situation requires it and not every time you feel like bluffing your way out of a difficult hand. Not all pokies online are like the movies, wherein the guy with the most serious poker face wins every time he bluffs. Nope, in the real world there are certain times when you can bluff and there are times when you’re not supposed to.

If you want to know how to bluff effectively at poker you should first know which games you shouldn’t do this at all. In low-limit games, bluffing is not required and not even suggested. Players in these low-limit games have a tendency to stay in the game even if they have the worst hand, and most of them will play until all of you show your cards. So if you’re only pretending that your hand is good and they play you until the casino dealer asks to show your cards then there really is no point to bluffing.

Bluffing can be used in high-limit games or tournaments because players here are playing against their opponents and their stack size. When you are thinking about bluffing remember that your position is essential and if you’re on the button position you might be able to steal the blinds through bluffing. But be warned that you shouldn’t do this frequently. Your opponents might play back at you and defend their blinds irregardless of the hand they have and bluffing your way out won’t help.

Experts also say that a good time to bluff is when none of the players has shown any strength yet before the flop, while you’re in the blinds, and the flop has already been checked around. There’s a good chance that you will win the bet if you’re the first to bet.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 9th, 2011 at 10:44 am and is filed under Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.