The art of bluffing

A valuable tool if used right, a harmful and fatal tool if done wrong. Yet if you ever want to get anywhere and grow as a poker player it is something you will likely have to try and use now and again. I know have made my fair share of great bluffs, and some that didn't prove so good.

"You can bluff some people some of the time, but not everyone all the time".


Very wise person who said that. Anyway as far as my own experience on bluffing goes there are three things you have to know to pull a bluff.

-when/where you can actually pull one
-when/where you can't pull one
-and if you are going to bluff, see it through unless you are totally doomed

I am not perfect at blufifng by any means. But when you can make a pair of 3's look like a queen high flush. You know you have just pulled a good bluff. And I have done that before .

that is some good advice but another thing to take into account when bluffing is your position and chip stack. add that to the information above and you have a good formula for bluffing.

Some good money saving advice I can give whilst you are starting out is:

DON'T BLUFF

most people at the lower levels will call anyway, gain some experience and you have to learn to recognise which players can fold a winning hand, even then it can be hard to pull off

it all depends on who you are playing

I play low limit "limit" tables mainly because I haven't perfected my bluffing skills and it evens the playing field for me. Rare event in low limit "limit Tables"

i also play low limit games but i believe that it is easiest to bluff in low limit games because people are not confident with there hands and always believe that if a person is betting a large amount they must have the nuts.

i dissagree with low limit....it's probably the worst place for bluffing...actually very rare if pulled off right...you might get some ppl out but if they have any outs they'll usually stay in for petty money...

like i didn't win one hand due to ppl calling me on a 2-4 table at a casino....so i was starting to get pissed....i was new to the game also...maybe my first 4 months or so...but i got the ace high flush on the flop...was holding king-8hearts...

flop came acehearts/4hearts/7hearts raised, got reraised thinking he has a flush too or a pocket pair so we raised til we couldn't anymore and... turn came a Qdiamonds or something and i was allin like 80-100 in the pot and the river came a 7of clubs................guy next to me was like why'd you go all in? and i flipped my cards over first with the ace high flush and he opens his pocket rockets AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhh ....f ck!!

bs....but you can't do what you can in no limit poker so you can't raise high enough for somone to fold...even though this player might've called my all in..unless i mumble to my friends behind me that i had a nut flush...hehe...but there's my story and limit pokers for the birds...i'll never play it again...no offense but it's not for me....

Digi

I strongly disagree with some of the posts made to this thread...
You cannot win a tournament without bluffing..
UNlesss your a kid gets AA or KK every hand you need to at least semi bluff to win in tournament style of play...
cash games on the other hand i can see you may have a different view

yea i'd say my post was more directed for cash play...and not tournament style.

bluffing i think is what makes poker an awesome game.

no limit holdem CANNOT be won withought some bluffing....there is no way anyone can get a run of cards that will win him a tourny so my advice is to learn at the lower no limit levels online so your not risking much and eventually youll learn the ropes of bluffing.....also remember that postion is very important for bluffing..the last person to act is the best place to bluff but people who know what they're doingn will call you on it so make sure you know your opponents

the key to bluffing is knowing wen ur opponent is weak and the kind of oppoenent they are so you know if they r wlling to fold there hand and for how much

I agree a beginner should never bluff. With time & expirience you will know when the time is right. You deffinatly need to see alot of hands played to do it well & that will not always save you. I think its just like poker-A gamble.

When bluffing, you have to be able to sense weakness in your opponent, and say you raise pre flop with nothing, and bet the flop with nothing, and you get a flat call, then you are either being trapped or they are fishing for outs.
When the turn comes, and you still don't have a hand, bet a bet big enough to make them fold, but make it look liek you WANT a call, say for example a $700 pot. You bet about $400, they will either clear out, or re-raise you. Then you are up the old "sh*t creek without a paddle" and then, you should stop bluffing. Or of course they could be bluffing and you re-raise and they clear out then, but then if you are re-re-raised then you clear out......its very complicated lol

But basically, be consistant and aggressive when bluffing, you can't get scared after a call on the flop, or even the turn in some cases, if they are waiting for a spade on the river, if there aint a drawing hand out there that could possibly be hit on the river then bet again.

you really just need to know the proper cards to bluff after and the proper moments, if u bluff in a wrong spot u will lose horribly

So much depends on the site you play at. I think newer players bluff much more. I play on Noble Poker and make notes on people I think bluff a lot. It has proved helpfull when you see them make big bets and there is a little note beside their name that tells you that he does this a lot. You still lose sometimes though.

You fight fire with fire, right? so why not fight agressive play with more agressive play? I get sick of those players who consistently raise pre flop with anything....does anyone runs into these guys and how would you handle it?

what you do is wait to you get a good hand under and slow play or reraise before the flop until the aggressive player loses enough money to where he cannot do this anymore

I think they do that to narrow the play. That makes their strait draws much stronger, and if you are ramming the pot with top pair but they have successfully gotten it down to heads up they probably will suck out on you. It's happened to me alot. Then they feel even better about raising pre flop everytime

I agree that it is very difficult to win a tournament without bluffing but I would not say that it absolutely cannot happen. In fact I won a live tourney not very long ago and I didn't bluff once. Well, I did get very lucky in several ways and because of that, I didn't need to bluff.

For instance, if you catch a big hand at just the right time (luck) it can carry you through several rounds of a tourney if you are patient. Now I will confess that this by far does not happen enough to base your playing style onj it, but when you see the cards working for you it is not a bad idea to play this way.

Let's say you fold fold fold then you catch kings or aces and someone else has jacks or queens in front of you and they raise big. There is a good chance if you go all in they could call you. If you double and sometimes even triple up early it can get you to the middle portions of the tourney if you play smart and only play good hands. Then if you catch another good hand at the right time later in the tourney it can be enough to propel you to the final table because you can then play prospectively and see flops because you have the chips to do so, but again the key is playing patient and not getting drawn in with one of those bad hands. If people start to notice you trying to see cheap flops and re-raising you, all you have to do is be more selective with you hands again. Until the blinds get large you can coast for awhile and wait for the right opportunity, but when you do get the cards you HAVE got o be aggressive.