Skip to main content

Bluffing at Poker

Bluffing is an integral part of poker and is a skill that few players master. A bluff is when you make a bet to make your opponents think that you have a better hand than them, causing them to fold despite the fact you have a worse hand than them. This is a very extravagant and exciting play, which is one of the reasons why poker has become such a popular game over the years.

Bluffing has been popularised even further in the advent of TV coverage of some of the major tournaments, where you can see some of the top professional players pulling off elaborate bluffs against one another. However, these coverage shows are usually edited down, and you do not see the build up to these plays and you get the impression that the bluffs were formed on the spot, when in real fact the bluff was probably set up from hours of play in numerous hands. Therefore you can find many online players trying to pull off bluffs at inappropriate times trying to imitate what they have seen on TV, and thus losing money in the process.

A common problem amongst poker beginners is that they try to bluff far to frequently, which costs them a lot of money. You may be surprised to learn that it is not actually essential to be able to pull of successful bluffs to be a winning poker player. If you play your hands well, it is possible to come out as a winner without ever having to risk your chips in a bluff. However, bluffing will increase the amount you can win from the game if you are able to do it successfully. If you are quite new to the game, it is recommended that you avoid bluffing too frequently so that you can find your feet, and gradually find out when a bluff will be successful.

There are times in a poker game where a bluff will be more successful than at other times. If your opponent is showing weakness by checking, then it more likely that you will be able to push your opponent off the hand with a decent sized bet. Subsequently, if your opponent is showing a lot of strength, then it is less likely that you will be able to run a successful bluff because they are showing a lot of interest in the hand. A very common question asked by players new to the game is “When should I bluff?” This is an incredibly general question, but there is a very simple answer to it; you should bluff when you think your opponents will fold.

The art of bluffing in poker is a skill that is acquired over months and years of play, through seeing countless numbers of hands and situations. The more poker you play, the easier it will become to find situations in which you can bluff opponents off of their hands. Bluffing is all about knowing your opponent and knowing the situation well enough to understand that a bluff may be effective. Being aware of live tells and online poker tells will also help with knowing when a bluff will be successful. This kind of knowledge does not come overnight; it simply takes practice to be gain such an understanding of the game.

Receive Free Money when you sign up at Full Tilt Poker!! Enter Referral Code: sly to get 100% matching Bonus money (up to 600$!).
(It's really easy, go to www.fulltiltpoker.com, click on Play Now to download the software and follow the on screen instructions and enter the referral code sly when signing up! You'll be playing in 5 minutes! Deposit 100$ they give you an additional 100$!! Deposit 600$ they give you 600$!!!)

Related Articles:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Playing Online Poker Legal?

Have you have heard about the Prosecutors' seizure of $34 million belonging to online poker players and you wonder if it's legal to play online? No lawyer will tell you that's it is legal, but no lawyer will tell you that it is not either! I personally think that we'll see some states "legalizes and regulates" online poker very soon ( CA? FL? ). Don't you think that the State need some of this Money? After reading a lot on this subject I think that Online Poker Players don't have to be concerned about being cited for illegal gambling. If problems have to come up, banks that do business with Poker companies could get the slap on the hand. However, the Poker Player community is very involved in the process and want to make sure everything will ends up into players' favor. My thinking on that is pretty much the same as Steve Badger at http://www.playwinningpoker.com : [...] as long as online poker players do not participate in owning a share of the...

Money Management when Playing Poker

To be a successful poker player you have to be able to exercise good bankroll management skills. If you are unable to manage your poker money correctly, you will never be able to become a long term winning poker player. Even if you were the best player in the world, it would be impossible to be able to make money from poker if you did not use good money management skills. Bankroll management basically involves playing at a certain levels and buy-ins to help prevent yourself from going broke at the poker table. You have to set yourself limits to where you can play poker due to the variance found in every poker game. There are always going to be times where you have runs of bad luck that you cannot control, and you will lose money due to the bad runs of cards, and not necessarily due to any bad play. Therefore there is no use in putting all of your poker money on one table, because there is a good chance that you will lose it all and not be able to continue playing poker. As a result...

Online Poker vs. Online Casino

There are a number of ways for people to satisfy their urge to gamble through gambling sites on the Internet. We surfers can sign up for gambling accounts at the numerous different sites that are available to them and start making bets and wagers in a vast array of gambling games on offer. Two of the most popular forms of online gambling are poker and casino games. Most people are familiar with the game of poker as well as the different forms of casino games, including blackjack, roulette, slots and so on. But how do both of these different forms of online gambling compare to each other? In general, the casino games are more based on luck and focus on the thrills of wagering money on the roll of a dice or the spin of the roulette wheel, whereas poker involves an element of skill and strategy. There are some games such as Blackjack that allow you to use good strategy using odds and mathematics to improve your chances of winning, but the majority of casino games give you fixed odds, wh...