Bluffing in Poker

by Bodog Poker | Dec 12 2008

Bluffing in poker is one of the reasons why having position is so important. Unless the players ahead of you are either slow-playing or simply don’t believe you, you should be able to take down most pots that are checked to you. But beyond that, what do you need to know to become an effective bluffer?

Thinking Ahead

If you’re in late position pre-flop and nobody enters the pot before you, a raise here (even with something like 6-8 suited) is telling the remaining players that you’ve got a hand. Whether or not they believe you is a different story. But assuming you haven’t proven yourself overly aggressive yet, you might very well steal the blinds outright here, which is great considering your hand.

Should you get a caller when the flop comes you can play off the cards you have as well as the ones you are pretending to have. Since you have already announced that you have something big you can continue with the bluff. Which means that if an ace falls on the flop you might be able to scare your opponent off the pot even if they made something like a pair of kings.

It’s important to be able to gauge the range of hands that your opponent might have here since a call from one of the blinds probably indicates that they have something that might well include an ace and a decent kicker.

But at least you now have the advantage of being able to play off your hole cards as well as an ace.

The mistake that a lot of beginners make is they limp in at the start and make small bets or calls all the way to the river. Then they make a desperate push at the end thinking that this is the only way to win the pot. They should’ve thought ahead and set the stages for their bluff right at the beginning of the hand. Each street should tell the story of how you have a monster.

Bluffing and Table Image

Late position raises, like the above example, are common enough that if you do it regularly players will start to suspect you.

A standard scenario when bluffing in poker is when you have created a tight table image and then steal a pot with a bluff because you’ve shown down enough times already and proved to be holding the goods almost every time.

But there are other ways to use your image to your benefit. A lot of poker pros make their living in cash games by creating an image that is hyper-aggressive. It might cost some money to generate this image by pushing with hands they shouldn’t but eventually they land a monster and one or more opponents who have a good piece of it (or who might even be bluffing themselves) refuse to back down. In a No Limit Holdem cash game this can be devastating as all of the money can go into a pot. After playing aggressively for an hour the pro might have lost something like 20%-30% of their stack but all it takes is winning an all-in situation once to come out on top.

Bluffing Based on Information

Knowing when to bluff is often about more than just your image in the eyes of your opponents but also what your opponents’ threshold for pain is. Have you seen that they are shy in the face of massive reraises? Is your opponent terrified of being slow-played? Is a small reraise more frightening to them then a big push?

Observing your opponents and learning what freaks them out will give plenty of information necessary for knowing when you can steal a pot. Great players often say that as you get better at poker the less important your hole cards become. That’s because it becomes more about knowing when your opponent will fold to you.

When Not to Bluff

Certain players should be treated differently. There’s no point in trying to bluff a wildly aggressive player. What happens when you make a bet after the flop and he goes all-in? Also, if your table image is that of madman, then you’ll probably want to wait for a hand and go for a trap. Let that madman image pay for itself when you make a monster.

Ready to try your hand at bluffing? Get in on a game of online poker in the Bodog Poker Room.