The Online Casino Gambling Blog

Kenny Rogers says you gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away but he forgot the most important part of poker - knowing when to bluff!  Now bluffing may not be the most universal skill as it’s not useful in a lot of gambling games besides poker and brag and a lot of people are actually horrible at it because they’re just unable to tell a believable lie. However most people can be taught to be reasonably good at bluffing, especially when playing with people who don’t know them well.

The first step to bluffing then is actually to develop a poker face, the idea is to keep your fellow players always guessing as to what kind of hand you might have. If you’re always fake frowning when you have a good hand and smiling when you have a bad hand they’re going to pick up on that. So you want to remain as neutral as possible regardless of the type of hand you have. Once you’ve developed your ‘poker’ or neutral face you want to become aware of any ‘tells’ you may have, like one gambler I know habitually scratched the left side of his nose when he had a good hand, tapping your fingers on the table when you have a bad hand etcetera. These are all ‘tells’ that you need to get rid of before you can bluff successfully.

Bluffing is tantamount in situations where you may have a hand that most likely isn’t a winning hand but you need the other players at the table to believe it is. You want them to think your hand is so great they have no choice but to fold. However if you do this every round and keep showing average or even bad hands then someone’s going to call your bluff for sure. You need to bluff sparingly so that people don’t pick up on the fact that you’re bluffing. You want to bluff subtly so people don’t realize you’re faking them out. So don’t all of a sudden start smiling over how great your cards are, you want to maybe grin a little and then stop, say something really positive unrelated to your hand like you’re all of a sudden in a good mood. But remember whatever you do has to be something you might normally do otherwise people will get suspicious and think you’re bluffing.

Of course the ideal time to bluff is when you’ve read your fellow players body language and know that they have bad hands so be sure to pay attention to their tells also. Knowing when to bluff and how to decipher body language is useful both in real time poker and poker via webcam.

Bluffing is a major online poker strategy for all types of poker games be it Texas Hold’em, Straight Stud, Caribbean Stud or Omaha Poker. Players bluff because they want their other opponents to think they have a better hand. For your bluff to be a success you have to persuade your opponent into believing you have a better hand than they do. Inexperienced players are famous for bluffing, they do it regularly and they end up being bankrupt. So now you know bluffing doesn’t always work.

Experienced poker players bluff all the time and more often than you would expect. It’s easier to bluff when there are fewer people at the table because the odds are that a good hand is low. Experienced players know of this situation and will call you till the end. Therefore you should always know who you’re playing against or at least spend some time at the table first knowing your opponents before attempting to bluff.

Bluffing on the river is a good chance to take. The players with bad hands will fold and if you made it this far with out bluffing chances are that you have a good hand. Even if you don’t the confident attitude you adopt at this point makes a huge difference in the minds of your opponents who might have a low or mediocre hand. The bluff you are about to make is actually a semi-bluff. Waiting to bluff when you’re last and everyone else has checked is good also. You may need to be persistent in this bluff though, bet and raise a few times because this type of bluff is common and will be expected.

You are usually safe to bluff if you have won a couple hands in the games before because now they fear you. Hence the reason you will find some players being very aggressive when first starting to play at a new table with players they have never played against. They are hoping to pick up a couple of big wins and instill an element of fear in the others minds. These type of players are usually easy to spot. They will most likely fold when you raise the bet, but you should play this bluff the same way you played the winning hands.

In conclusion, when using these bluffing strategies think about the fact that the other player may know about them too. This will help them to sniff out your bluff so don’t overdo it. Always play against who you know if you want to be a successful bluffer or at least get to know your opponents first. Sometimes the run of the cards allows you to create an aura of invincibility early on. Example if you start with a couple of great hands and bet big and then show your hands at the end, win or lose, players will recognize you as someone who bets hard when they have a good hand. Hence when you have a couple of duds and do the same, you will more likely get away with it.