If you love poker, then you will love PokerTube. The world's largest Poker Media website has everything you need to follow the games that matter to you. With over 20,000 videos available covering a wide variety of live and online games, Pokertube is a priceless resource for enthusiasts and professionals alike. A lot of people semi-bluff all day long and don’t even realize that they are actually bluffing. Semi-bluffs can be less obvious in the form of backdoor draws. For example, if you have AKs on a 10-9-2s board, you may choose to continuation bet as a bluff. Some might think this is a pure bluff, but in fact, you do have some equity in the hand. Indications: One of the classic online poker tells is the extreme delay in making a bet or especially a raise. While online players often react slowly due to the popularity of playing multiple tables, if a player breaks from his usual betting time by delaying and then making a big raise it usually indicates strength.
Here is another real hand from the virtual felt, played by real people, who as we will see, each really wanted to win the money in the middle. The game is $0.50/$1.00 (100NL), played six-handed, and the hand illustrates an example of how not to bluff when playing online poker.
Online Poker Bluff Tells Friends
Bluffing and Bluff Catching
An inexperienced player with 200 big blinds ($200) raises from the cutoff, then the big blind three-bets to $10. Our inexperienced player calls and the flop comes .
Some things never change in poker, and the need to tell a convincing story when bluffing is one of them. For educational purposes, I think it is best that we reveal up front the big blind has . With $19.50 in the pot after the rake has been taken out, he continues for $6. The player in the cutoff responds by raising to $13.
Now here is the first part of the cutoff's story about which the player holding the jacks might be suspicious. After all, this board should favor him given how he was the one three-betting. It is very hard for the cutoff to have a hand that want to go to the felt right away for 200 big blinds.
Speaking of, does a near-minimum raise strike one as something a player holding hands like or might be interested in here, in position? Some things are suspicious — that's all I am getting at. But let's see how the story continues.
An Innocent Turn
The big blind, with two jacks, calls the raise to $13, the price being too good for him not to continue. The turn brings the . Our hero with two jacks checks, and with $44 in the pot the cutoff player checks behind.
Now if the cutoff had one of the hands he was representing on the flop — , , , — wouldn't he want to keep building a pot? After all, there is a lot of money behind. Also worth noticing is the fact that while there was no flush draw on the flop, there is one now, making it fairly strange that the cutoff would slow down.
One kind of hand that makes some sense is a wheel draw that paired the turn and chickened out of bluffing — namely or . One would expect (a turned straight) to bet the turn for the same reasons or would.
A River Blank, and Some Action
The river is the , making the board .
The second deuce on the board further diminishes the chances of the cutoff having or . Our big blind with jacks has one play, to check, and that's what he does. And sure enough, the cutoff fires — a big pot-sized bet of $44.
The Story Being Told
The story being told... is an incoherent one.
Say the cutoff did make a small value raise on the flop — for instance, with a hand like — targeting the exact type of hand the big blind has. For what reason would the cutoff choose this river sizing? And for what reason would he think he's ahead enough to bet so huge?
Meanwhile the big value hands have already been ruled out for reasons outlined above. So one would expect either a medium value bet or a check from hands that needs to be worried about.
What Not to Do
A heroic call came from the big blind here, checking and calling the pot-sized bet on the scary ace-high board. He really wanted to win this pot. And it turns out, the cutoff really wanted to win it as well, maybe even more so, because the cutoff showed up with the complete air ball — .
Now actually, this is the kind of hand that we should expect to see in such a situation, one that saw the small continuation bet size on the flop as weak and tried to win a pot the player had no right to claim. It is okay to attack weakness in cash games such as this, but having some equity — a gutshot, a backdoor flush draw, something — will improve any flop bluff.
Trying to win pots is all well and good, but a consistent story still has to be told by the bluffer, just as it has always been in poker. A strong hand on the flop would have bet the turn for some size and a medium hand that raised the flop would not have bombed the river. So the cutoff either turned quads and wanted his opponent to catch up, or he has a bluff.
The big blind sorted all those pieces of the story out and was rewarded with a big 135-big blind pot in the end.
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cash game strategyno-limit hold’embluffingpositionbarrelingpostflop strategyhand readingrange readinghero callingbluff catching100NL
Bluff Magazine Poker
As anyone whose been around poker more than a week, you know bluffing is a very important part of any poker game. However, the art of bluffing is something that takes alot of time and study to master, and often those who think they've got it down are actually the ones who are the worst bluffers in the world.
This short article won't make you an expert in bluffing, but it will definitely give you something to think about, and will at least start you on your path to mastering the art.
When bluffing, you should take all of these factors into consideration:
1. Is it a loose or tight table?
As a general rule, bluffs have a better chance to work well at tight tables, and are pretty much doomed to failure at loose tables, unless all the 'loose players' have already folded.
2. What are the table limits?
In low limit games, theres really no point in bluffing. For a buck or 2, you can bet that most of the time someone will call your bluff. High limits, and especially no limit games, bluffing is at its most effective.
3. Who are you trying to bluff?
Weak players are harder to bluff than strong ones. I know it sounds backwards, but its generally true. Weak players tend to be loose and just can't stand not knowing what you have. They'll call. Strong players won't call as many bluffs, unless they have very strong cards or have you figured out by your 'tells'.
Don't bluff at big chip stacks. They have the chips to absorb a loss, and are more likely to call. On the flip side, bluff at the short stackers. They're protecting their chips like a hen on her eggs and faced with any real challenge they may chicken out. (very corny, yes, but I'm the writer )
Don't often try to bluff known loose cannon players. Do I even have to mention this here? They're more likely to raise your bluff than fold their cards.
4. How many are you trying to bluff?
Common sense tells you that the more people you are trying to bluff, the less chance you have of it working. Remember, your goal is for everyone to fold.
5. What position are you in?
Bluff from late position whenever possible. If everyone is checking, calling or folding in front of you, its a perfect time to try and buy the pot. Its not wise to bluff from early position, because you have no clue as to who has hit their hand or been dealt killer cards.
6. Do you have any outs?
Many would argue that to bluff with 'outs' isn't a true bluff. But from my experience, you're better served bluffing when there is at least an outside chance of you forming a decent hand. This is also referred to as a “semi-bluff,“ and is made when there are still cards to come.
Bluff Avenue Poker
For example, you are dealt AK in a Texas Hold'em game and the flop completely misses you with a board showing J, T, 3. This might represent a good time to go ahead and bluff at the pot. You are representing a big pair or that you caught a piece of the flop, and your show of strength might prompt the rest of the table to fold, giving you the pot right there. However, even if someone does call your bluff, you have outs. An ace or king on the turn or river gives you top pair, and if a queen hits, you have the nut straight. Bluffing with 'outs' simply means that even if the bluff does not work, you're not completely dead in the water.
7. What is your table image?
So many people think that if they bluff alot and play loose and crazy poker, it makes their bluffs stronger because noone can ever be sure what they have. It actually works the exact opposite. As anyone whose played long knows, great cards don't come often, so the chance that the wild player is holding trash is generally higher than the chance that hes got good cards. Therefore, strong players almost always call crazy bluffers. On the other hand, its very very hard to call someones bluff who always plays good cards. When you have the image of a strong player who throws away the trash cards, the other people at the table know that odds are you have good cards, and to call the bluff is taking a big risk. Play a good number of hands at any one table and build your table image before trying to bluff.
Final thought:
This is just a beginners list. There are so many more things that can be learned and added to fine tune the 'bluffing' section of your game. But if you'll build your image as a strong player and pick your spots carefully, bluffing can buy you alot of pots.