by Author Name Withheld 123

Created on: March 03, 2010

Effective bluffing at poker

Bluffing in poker is almost essential at some point during a tournaments or cash game to make yourself money or stop you from loosing unnecessary amounts. Effective bluffing is an art and when used correctly can make you a lot of money or even win you a tournament.

Bluffing is all about timing and reading your opponent, online poker is harder than real life because you can only read a players betting patterns and previous hands you have played with them. Live poker is different because you can pick up on tells which are body signals or facial expressions which show doubt or confidence. Knowing roughly cards your opponent is playing will help you to know when to bluff, usually missed flush or straight draws are the ideal way to bluff with nothing and making a player fold. Many poker professional use the flush and straight draws, if there is one on the board usually on the flop or the river is the most effective and convincing, throwing out a chunky bet makes the opponent overwhelmed and gives them a tricky decision to call even with top pair.

The check raise

Every Professional or successful poker player will use the check raise in a bluffing manor at minimum once every 20-30 hands. Bluffing your opponent with a check raise is the most common way to use a bluff and pressure your opponent, check raising takes no special cards or draws and usually gets your opponent step back a little unless he or she has a monster hand. 90% of people only 3 or 4 bet with good hands such as AK, AQ, AJ, 10 10 etc, calling even with junk can be heaven on the flop because probably 80-90% of the time your opponent will only 3 or 4 bet with those select few hands. Say the flop comes 3 4 6, you check and your opponent value bets this si your shot to take the pot with a chunky bet around two and half times his bet.

Overall bluffing is important and essential but by using the same play continuously your only going to give away your entire game, using these methods frequently can loose you a lot of money. The right time to use these bluff should only really arise for you every 70-100 hands 6 handed and 20-40 hands head up at most! Accurate bluffs build a bankroll better than relying on the draw of the cards and reading your opponent well is always the main key to using and bluffing method.

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