Bluffing is an integral part of poker, and something a lot of players either over-do, or do too little. What exactly constitutes as “bluffing”? Simply put, bluffing in poker is to try and make your opponent believe that you have a better hand than he does. This is usually done in the form of bets, or the not-so-usual verbal connotations.
Let’s face it, the number of times you actually make a hand in poker is far and few between. A large number of hands you enter pots with usually end up missing the flop, and if you don’t “bluff”, you will usually end up folding when your opponent bets, simply because you believe he has a better hand than you do. This means that, most of the time, you will lose money by entering a pot, if you don’t bluff. A player that doesn’t bluff is also very vulnerable, as his hands are practically transparent to any semi-decent poker player, simply because he never puts money into the pot without a made hand. Thus, the easy way of countering these kind of players is to avoid paying them off, and fold most hands to them. How do these players lose money then? Usually by bad beats, mistakes, cooler hands and such, which all poker players face, but they can’t offset due to their meager wins.
Another reason to bluff is to disguise or rather, balance your play. If you occasionally raise with your worst hands, your hand strength will be hidden when you raise with your premium hands. Your opponents can’t simply fold to your bets anymore, or they risk getting run over. The key here though, is to keep a consistent betting amount for your bluffs and your premium hands. Some players bet overly large or overly small when they bluff, and do the exact opposite when they actually have a hand.
Bluffing adds value to your play, by forcing your opponents to pay you off when you have a hand. Make sure though, that you don’t keep bluffing at pots, so much so that you are called down by almost any player. Instead, limit your bluffs to times when you have an edge, like position, a board that’s friendly to bluff at, e.g. you raise with junk on the button and a rainbow disconnected flop with an Ace hits the board, you raise again to bluff opponents off their hand. Bluffing also adds value to your play, by giving you additional information about your opponents while keeping the strength of your own hand hidden.
An example of how bluffing can give you an edge happened a couple of nights before in a live game I was playing. Blinds were $2/$5, and I was on the button with Q9 suited. A few players limped into the pot, and I made a raise of about 6xBB. All players folded except one, a tight, and extremely passive player. His stack was relatively short compared to the pot, roughly 3 times the amount. The flop came 3s2c2h, he bet into me, and I re-raised him all-in. He calls with A3s, a Queen comes on the turn to put me in the lead and I take his stack. This was observed by all players at the table. After one orbit of play, I get J8s on the button, while there was a player who straddled. After the usual few players limped in, I again made a 6xBB raise. The blinds folded, and the player who straddled, went all in. His stack was again about 2.5 times the pot after I made the raise, which gave me the odds to call if he was making a move or even if he was holding two over cards. I chose to call to advertise my strategy. I lost that pot. Payback came when I got pocket Qs the very next orbit, once again on the button. I made a raise and a player shoved into me, I call, and my queens held up to take the pot.
Note that most of my “bluffs” were done from the button (the canonical position to bluff), which generally gave me a significant edge over my opponents simply because they would have to act before I did. Also note that you have to display your “bluffs” to let your opponent know you’re actually bluffing. Sometimes, if it doesn’t cost too much, it’s worth it to play to outdraw on your opponents, simply to do a bit of advertising, and get some implied odds on all future hands, e.g., you value bet the river as a bluff and get called, but your next value bet is for a monster made hand and you make the maximum amount.
This was a pretty unstructured article, but I hope I managed to convey the necessity and value of bluffing in poker. Till the next time, may all your bluffs succeed!
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