Poker Bluff

One of the things that differentiates poker from other card games is that in poker, you don’t always need to have the best hand to scoop in the pot. A well-timed bluff can win you a pot that you would have no chance of winning at showdown with your 7-2 offsuit.

There is more to bluffing than just throwing some chips in the middle and then hoping your eyes don’t give you away. To succeed with a bluff in poker, you must know when a bluff is likely to succeed, and when you shouldn’t even bother.

TV and movies have romanticised the importance of bluffing in poker. Many a Hollywood blockbuster has the hero win the World Series by making, or reading, a particularly clever and risky bluff for all his chips. The truth however is that while an ability to make bluffs in effective situations is a characteristic of all good poker players, they are rarely the most important skill I a player’s repertoire. Hand selection, understanding position, and pot odds are skills at least as important as bluffing to successful poker player.

How to Bluff in Poker

Bluffing in poker when the situation is right is still a powerful and profitable move however. Here are some things to keep in mind when considering making a bluff:

When To Bluff:

Bluff when you have recently showed down winning hands: It doesn’t matter if the winning hand was Ace high or a full house, all that matters is that people saw you show the winning hand. That sticks in people’s memory (at least for a few rounds) and they will give your bets and raises more respect. Use that respect to win a few extra pots by bluffing.

Bluff when a small bet had a good chance to win a big pot: If you have a $1,000 and the pot is only $50, then shoving your entire stack in to win is probably going to lose money in the long run. You will definitely win the pot most of the time, but when you are called, you will have lost $1,000 trying to win $50. Conversely, if you bluff with a $25 bet to win a $50 pot, you only need to win 1 time in 3 to break even, and anything above that is profit.

Bluff against good players: This might seem counterintuitive, but one of the defining characteristics of a bad player is their inability to fold. A bad (or inexperienced) player will tend to call all the way to the river with a hand as week as bottom pair. A good player will usually be able to understand the strength you are representing, and will be more likely to fold their medium strength hands.

Bluff when your betting tells a consistent story: Lets say your raised preflop in a Texas Hold’em game holding 6-6. You get one caller, and the flop comes A Q 5. This is often a good spot to bluff, because your hand tells a consistent story: You raised preflop representing a strong hand (usually high cards), now the flop has come with some high cards, and you bet again. You could easily have hit this flop (although in this instance you didn’t) so your opponent will be likely to fold unless they hit the flop hard themselves.

When Not To Bluff in Poker:

There are some times when even the best poker player in the world wont be able to get away with a bluff. Be wary in these situations; often the best choice is just to let the hand go.

Don’t bluff when you’ve recently been caught bluffing. If you have bluffed and been caught the last 3 hands in a row, chances are slim that you are going to get away with a bluff on the 4th attempt. Change gears and play tight for a little while, and then you can go back to bluffing once your image has evened out a bit.

Don’t bluff against multiple players. The more players left in the hand, the higher the chances that someone has a hand good enough to call or raise you, and that’s not what you want to happen when you are bluffing.

Don’t bluff when an opponent probably has a strong hand. There are some situations where you can be reasonably confident that your opponent’s hand is pretty good. Lets say that your opponent raised preflop from under the gun and you called on the button with 22. The flop comes A K Q, and your opponent bets into you with a full pot sized bet. This would be an ill advised situation to put in a bluff-raise, since your opponent’s early position raise and large flop bet on a dangerous board likely indicates a very strong hand, 2 pair at minimum.

Don’t bluff bad players: There is a saying in poker: “If you try and bluff a bad player, you’re a bad player”. This is because bad players tend to call, even when they should fold. When you bluff into a bad player, all you are doing is helping your opponent to make “really great calls”, when they call down your bluff and they only have a weak pair.