How can I avoid being obvious when bluffing?

Emi

Emi

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 6, 2017
Total posts
108
Chips
0
Last tuesday playing with my friends, I made an important bluf. I was so nervous and all my friends started to laugh because they said "you're so obvius". How can I avoid that?
 
R

rehanov

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Feb 27, 2017
Total posts
146
Chips
0
u have to represent something an over pair a flush etc , u cant just betting without thinking
u must have a story to persuade the other guy , lets say u want to say u have an over pair or waiting for a flush draw and the flush hit , even if u dont u have to think what u exactly do if u would have a flush and so on
dont just keep betting and hope he will assume u have a better hand and u make double barrel and he still calls i think before making the 3rd barrel u rly rly need to think what he has or what he is waiting for
not big fan of bluffing on micro stakes anyway they seem to call u no matter what
 
blanktheman

blanktheman

Visionary
Silver Level
Joined
Dec 27, 2014
Total posts
605
Chips
0
You have to bet a bluff as if you playing a winning hand. Also only bluff when you really think the other guy has nothing.
 
RidersFan

RidersFan

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Total posts
1,177
Awards
11
Chips
1
Try to stay calm, control your breathing and be confident. Don't think negatively like, I hope he will fold. Be positive when you make a bluff and think, when I make this bet he has to fold. This should help you from displaying nervous energy. Also if your friends think your so obvious when you bluff, try acting nervous when you have the nuts, use their perception of you against them.
 
Andrei Korolev

Andrei Korolev

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Total posts
3,014
Chips
0
In live poker you see all the players and notice all the details of the behavior of the opponent.What advice you can give,learn to hide their emotions.Just harder online.
 
M

marakhovskii

Visionary
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Total posts
512
Chips
0
I can advise bluffing to plan preflop and on the weakest cards - 2 and 5 are perfect :))
 
HennieP

HennieP

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 30, 2017
Total posts
186
Chips
0
Bluffing successfully takes a lot of imagination, observation and control. There's no point bluffing on a dry board for example because an over pair or top pair or even a set is just going to laugh at you. If there's a possible straight or flush on the board (wet board) you can attempt to represent such a hand if your previous betting was consistent with someone holding such cards. For example, let's say the flop come TJQ rainbow and you had raised pre-flop your opponent could very well put you on AK even though you're only holding pocket 7's and a bluff here would have a better chance of succeeding if you are in position and it was checked to you.

As for being nervous, well you'll have to find a way to deal with that. One way is to forget what your actual cards are and to play on what story you want to tell your opponents about your hand. This is a crucial skill to master in poker and takes a lot of knowledge about the game and a lot of practice to get right.
 
T

TCashMoney19

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 11, 2016
Total posts
94
Awards
1
Chips
1
For live poker, I had the same problem when I started playing with some of my friends. One of my bros had some dead read on me that he still won't tell me about to do this day, but a couple things helped me fix this problem:

1) Find a comfortable position you like to be in and STAY THAT WAY the entire hand. Do not move. For me, I like to have my elbows on the table, left hand on top of my cards in front of my stack and my right hand in a fist covering my mouth with my palm facing to the left. This position works for me and I cover a large part of my face in the process. Once you find a position, DO NOT DEVIATE FROM IT.

2) When betting, whether value betting or bluffing, make sure you put the chips in the exact same way with the same hand in the same manner. I like to go for chips with my right hand, then almost sliding them forward so that the dealer and Villain(s) can see what bet I made.

3) DO NOT TALK DURING A HAND. You are not Daniel Negreanu. You're more likely to give away information or tells about how strong or weak you are when you open your mouth. Talking for the sake of getting a reaction out of your opponent is risky too, if your live tells are not up to par. I've sometimes got them to work, but other times they've backfired. So as a general rule, just don't talk during a hand.

4) Pick one spot on the table to stare at when making a bet and trying to remain unreadable. I normally pick the window card on the flop and once I've made a bet, I just stare at that card without moving and maintaining the position I mentioned in my first bullet point. This helps keep our entire body still, motionless and our eyes from giving away any information about our hand strength. Especially if Villain tries to angleshoot with his chips or anything else along those lines, I will not see it because I am focused on that one card and do not take focus away from it unless it's my turn to act again.

These are some general rules that helped me make myself harder to read and it has worked for me so far. Not to say you can't be friendly and open at the table, whenever I'm not in a hand I'm more than happy to chat it up with the people around me. But once we're in a hand, I shut it down and go into full on frozen mode :D lol good luck on the tables, hope this helps!
 
A

Adolf88

Rising Star
Bronze Level
Joined
Jun 4, 2017
Total posts
7
Chips
0
Bluffing is so much psychology. It depends on the history of your game play!
If you have a tight image, you will be more available to bluff.
But if you are loose player, you will be more called with bad hands which are better than yours. You need a good strategy for your dyanmic while you play.
 
TeUnit

TeUnit

Legend
Loyaler
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Total posts
4,734
Awards
14
Chips
77
maybe try making up a hand in your head to represent and then play like you have that hand
 
Emi

Emi

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 6, 2017
Total posts
108
Chips
0
Thank you all for your advices, it will help me in future.
 
robertocoelho

robertocoelho

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Total posts
306
Chips
0
The bluff is like a story, if you want to represent a pair high example raise preflop, Continuation bet post flop and try to breathe to control nervousness
 
Amanda A

Amanda A

Legend
Bronze Level
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Total posts
1,357
Awards
2
Chips
23
Yes your story has to make sense. How other players perceive you is also really important. Are you aggressive or tight? If people view you as tight and you raise pre flop, they will probably assume you got a piece of the action if the flop comes with a high card and you bet post flop (the best place to do this is after they check to you when you are in late position.) If they didn't hit the flop you have a good chance against taking it down against a couple of players. Just pretend like you hit the flop and make the same size bet as if you did.
 
Top