Poker Bluffing Defined
A lot of people say that they play honest, that they don’t bluff at all. These people are either liars or poor poker players.
Bluffing is a scary part of poker, but without it, it’d pretty much be a slot game. The fun of playing poker is the ability to lie to make other people do what you want. In this case, what you want is for them to give you their money.
Basically, poker is a microcosm for life in general. Just kidding.
It can be intimidating to bluff, especially because in most cases you’re putting money at risk when you’re fairly certain that you don’t have a winning hand. Keep this in mind, however-with the proper bluff, any hand can be the best one (ooh…). Learn to bluff and bluff well, and you’ll keep your opponents guessing.
At it’s most basic, the situation for the poker bluff has three ingredients: The bluffer, the sucker, and the payoff.
The bluffer is hopefully you, wanting the cash in the pot, but aware that your cards probably aren’t good enough to get it. The sucker is anyone else in the hand. They’ve got money in the pot, and they aim to get a return on their investment. Your goal is to thwart that goal. And the payoff-the cash in the pot, if you play your cards right, it’ll be yours.
All you need to do is act as if you’ve got the hand that’ll win. If there’s a draw on the board, act as if you’ve got it.
Sound simple, but after the basics, the mind games start, and then it’s all up to your discretion.
You need to keep in mind that how the others play will determine whether or not a pot is ripe for a bluff. If there are a lot of players in, and people keep betting, someone probably has a hand. If you don’t, it may be better to get out. If there’s a lot of checking and feeler bets coming out, it may be the right time to try to scare everyone out of the pot.
Then you need to decide how to scare everyone out of the hand. Do you go over the top with an all in? Do you place a fairly high bet and try to look like you want the others to bet?
Again it depends on the table. Know the players, and you’ll know when to make your move.
