ONE of the most important tools in the arsenal of a poker player is the ability to bluff. Whether you’re playing in a casino or an online poker site, knowing how, and equally importantly when to bluff can be the difference between leaving with everybody’s chips, and leaving with none.
So how do you bluff? Does bluffing really work? And is it possible to spot if someone else is bluffing?
What is a Poker Bluff?
Put in its simplest form, a poker bluff is the act of making other players believe you have a different hand to the one you do. Most often, a bluff is used to make other players believe you have a valuable hand, in the hope they will fold, but it can work the other way too.
If you have a very good hand, and you don’t want people to know, you may bluff by playing in a way that leads your opponents to believe you don’t have a particularly good hand, convincing them to call, or even raise a bet. This form of bluffing can be very lucrative if done well, and if the cards fall in your favor.
Why is Bluffing Important in Poker?
If you only bet in line with the poker hand you have, it becomes increasingly easy to predict what you’re going to do. A big bet means a good hand, a fold means a bad hand, checking means a hand with potential. If this were how every player bet, games would be based entirely on luck.
It is bluffing, and the ability to tell when others are bluffing, that moves poker from a game of chance, to a game of skill, and is necessary for every poker player.
How to Bluff in Poker – The Basics
The most important skill to have when learning to bluff in poker is a sense of balance. You don’t want to always bet to match the hand you’ve got, but at the same time, if you’re constantly making super aggressive bluffs, it won’t take long for that to be noticed by other players.
The point of bluffing is to keep yourself unpredictable, to make it harder for players to assume what you’ve got in your hand, making them more likely to fold, and making you more likely to take the pot without having to turn your hand over.
Bluffing is as much about your opponent as it’s about you. It’s important to get a sense of how your opponent plays, as more aggressive players are more likely to call a bluff, but the situation of your opponent in the game is also important.
If you’re on your last few chips, and your opponent is in a strong position, they are much more likely to take the risk on calling a bluff. However, if you’re in a strong position, and the other player’s chips are running down, they’re only likely to call with a strong hand, so a bluff is more likely to work.
There’s also the matter of your image at the table to consider. If you’re new to the table, and nobody knows who you are, you’re less likely to be respected by other players. However, if you have played some strong hands, and taken some chips from your opponent, or even better, beaten them before, they’re more likely to be careful when playing with you.
If your reputation at the table has been built up with a good balance of good hands and bluffing, you’ve made yourself hard to predict, and you’re in a relatively strong position compared to other players, it may be time to risk a big bluff.
Types of Bluff in Poker
There are two main ways to bluff in poker. The most common way is to bluff with a bad hand, while the less frequently used approach is to bluff with a good hand.
Bluffing with a bad hand is a simple concept, you’re trying to get your opponents to fold due to the belief that your hand is stronger than theirs, despite you knowing it is very likely not to be. The way to perform this bluff best is simply to play like you‘ve got a strong hand, but at the same time, being reserved. If you actually had a good hand, you probably wouldn’t go all in immediately, and if you did, other players would be unlikely to call.
With this type of bluff, it’s important to slow play, raise a little bit at a time, and then potentially throw in a major raise once the pot has filled up a bit, which would hopefully convince other players your hand is too strong to stay in against, resulting in them folding and you taking the pot.
The second type of bluff is convincing other players not to fold. Essentially a double bluff, this is where you convince your opponents that your hand is worse than it is. In this scenario, you play in a way that convinces other players that you’re bluffing, when in fact you have a very strong hand.
Again, this involves self-control, but may actually benefit from being a little more reckless, the way a player may if they were trying to bluff. This second type of bluff is less risky, as if you’re caught out, the worst-case scenario is normally that you win less than you could have, as opposed to losing your shoes, as is possible with the other type of bluff.
Online vs Offline Poker Bluffing
You’ll often here poker players speak of ‘tells’, physical ticks or actions that a player has no control over, that allow other players to know they’re bluffing. Obviously, physical tells are not an issue when you’re bluffing in an online poker environment, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways you can give the game away if you’re not careful.
Online poker games are where many of us play most of our poker, and that’s where we must learn to bluff through action. Betting confidently, like you have a good hand, and balancing that against genuine hands to keep yourself unpredictable is the way here.
While it obviously helps to not have to look your opponents in the eye, the way you play still paints a picture, so it’s important to keep a balanced playing style, so when you bluff, nobody can be sure.
This is how you bluff 🙂 #poker pic.twitter.com/Z1YxaHhBKK
— PokerMotivation (@pokermotivation) July 14, 2018
When to Bluff
Knowing when to bluff is important and differs between variations of poker. Let’s work with Texas Hold’em as an example.
In Texas Hold’em, you are trying to make the best five-card poker hand between your two cards and five community cards. At the beginning of a hand, the five community cards are not yet on the table, so bluffing here is not necessarily the best idea, as a good hand at this point (a pair of aces, for example) could become a less valuable hand later (if the chance at a straight or flush turns up in the community cards).
So, when playing Texas Hold’em, the sensible time to bluff is when it looks like you could have just landed a stellar hand. For example, if the river card puts three hearts in the community cards, a good bluff could lead your opponent(s) to believe you’ve just landed a flush, and they may choose to fold instead of taking the risk.
Timing is everything in bluffing, if you make it look like something has just changed to put you in a position of power in the hand, other players are more likely to believe in the possibility strongly enough to back away and fold their hand.
Bet Size – How Much to Bluff With
The perfect bluff is when you bet the least amount of money possible to lead your opponent to fold out of the game, this is where the risk factor really comes into play.
The amount changes depending on your opponent, the size of the pot, how the hands have gone so far, the amount of chips you and other players have, and often, simply on the mood of an opponent at that second.
It’s a tough thing to know, if you bet too low, they’re more likely to call, but if you bet high, and then they call, you’re stuck in a high stakes game with a woeful hand.
Learning to predict your opponent is vital, as a game goes on, you will get more of a sense of where breaking point is, and that’s when you try and guess how much to bluff with. When you’re learning a player, it’s wise to start with some low bluffs, then if they’re called, you don’t lose much. Slowly build up, and when you feel the need, bluff with a bet that’s a little higher, and hope it works!
How to Spot a Bluffing Opponent in Poker
It’s an important question. If you’re bluffing, and your opponent seems to be falling for it, how do you know they are not also bluffing? Maybe you’re sitting on four Kings and playing like you have a much lower hand, only for your opponent to flip over four Aces, meaning you’ve been out-bluffed.
Knowing if an opponent is bluffing is just as, if not more important, than being able to bluff yourself. Being able to read the table, and make accurate (as accurate as possible, at least) guesses as to what your opponents are holding makes it much easier to know when to bluff.
But how can you know if an opponent is bluffing?
The easiest way to check if an opponent is bluffing is to test the waters, which can only really be done when you’re the chip leader. Here, you take control of the hand, making some low raises that make little difference to your chip stack, but could do damage to your opponents less expansive chip amount. This can discourage a player from bluffing or lead them to back away from a plan to bluff.
If you’re not the chip leader, however, spotting a bluff from your opponent can be a lot harder to do. Here, the work is more associated with psychological analysis. For example, if you’re playing Texas Hold’em, and a pair of Kings appears on the Flop, followed by a big bet or raise from an opponent, it is important to ask the question, if they just landed three, or even four kings, would they bet this high? Is the only reason for a high bet to scare you away from the hand?
Of course, you can never be sure, and if your chip stack is running low, it’s often worth not taking the risk and hoping a nicer hand will fall for you the next time around, but if you think you’ve got your opponent figured out, then maybe it’s worth taking the chance?
