Poker Bluffs

Bluffing is a large part of Texas Holdem poker and if you don’t know when and how to bluff then you could be losing chips that could be yours. Bluffing is generally something you shouldn’t do very often, and the more you do it the less powerful it becomes. As players begin to watch you play if they notice you bluff a lot then they will start calling them, and next thing you know you’re missing half of your stack. Maintaining the power of your bluffs is a vital aspect of winning tournaments and cash games, and if you expect too do well in Texas Holdem then you need to be able to do it properly.

Professionals bluff all the time, and if you watch them on the television then you will begin to see how much bluffing is apart of poker. When you’re at a nine table game there is quite a bit of bluffing that goes on, and it may not seem like this because you don’t see others cards but trust me there is lots of bluffing. If you’re not bluffing, you can be sure that someone else is trying too.

One thing to remember is that when you bluff in the early stages you shouldn’t risk too much of your chip stack. Make it a big enough raise so that people will need a hand to call you, but don’t raise too much that it would hurt your stack if called or reraised. You will also begin to notice that instead of people just calling you they will reraise, and when this happens you will need to determine whether or not you should call, reraise or fold.

Generally calling is a terrible play, because you can be assured that after the next community card the other player is going to come out and bet. When you’re reraised on a bluff you need to decide whether or not you will play your cards strongly and reraise over the top of their reraise or if you should just fold your hand. This is when knowing the player styles helps out a lot, and why it’s important to watch how other players play. If the person who reraised you is a tight player then it’s an automatic fold because they wouldn’t have reraised you without the nuts. Now if it’s a player who bluffs a lot of likes to try and steal pots from players then you need to determine whether you should reraise all in or fold.

Now folding is a good play here still because you never know what they have, but I will sometimes reraise all in on the person to see if they call. One thing that helps me make the decision is whether or not or the reraise of all in will be enough to make them think. By this I mean if there already pot committed after the reraise then you should just fold your cards, but if you both still have enough chips that a reraise would seem high then you could possibly do it. The worst thing that can happen is you lose your chips and need to find another tournament, which is why you need to play within your bankroll.

The best positions to bluff your opponent is when you’re either on the dealer button, in small or big blind and when you have raised before the flop. When you have the dealer button you’re the last player to act, and if everyone checks the pot to you then this could be a good time to place a small bluff. Generally everyone will fold the pot, and if someone reraises you then you know that you should cool down on the betting that hand. When you’re in small blind and nobody has called the blinds up to you then it’s a great time to raise the big blind and steal it, this works best once the blinds are worth stealing though of course. When you’re in big blind noone expects you to raise, so when you do they suspect you have a monster hand and will generally fold.

This will work sometimes, but if you do it to often then people will start calling these bluffs and you can get in trouble. The last time you should be bluffing is when you raise before the flop, and then nothing comes on the flop for you. If you throw out a nice bet people will usually fold if they hit nothing, and if they call then you can guess they most likely hit their cards, and you should be careful from that point on in that hand. Bluffing may seem easy to steal pots and increase your chip stack, but if you do it too often then people will begin calling all of them and your chips will lower a lot quicker then they rose. Maintaining the power of your bluffs throughout a tournament is important and if you don’t bluff often then when you do it’s a lot more powerful. Make sure when you bluff that the pot is actually worth bluffing for, because there is no point being called on a bluff for a $20 pot.

Make A Bluff Against The Weak Players At Bodog Poker Click Here To Grab Yourself a $550 Bonus!