Poker

The most enjoyable part of a game of poker is undoubtedly taking a pot from a player when you have nothing remotely resembling a decent hand. However, genuine chances to successfully bluff don’t crop up as often in a game as westerns would suggest. That said, having a strategy on when and how to bluff can give you the edge.

Winning the pot in front of you may be the aim but as well as the immediate goal, bluffing regularly can give you a reputation as a chap who plays it fast and loose. This will get under the skin of some opponents and they can start attempting to catch you out. If they decide you’re bluffing when you actually have a nice hand, you will be soon nailing them to the wall. This has the added bonus of causing them to be more reluctant to call you next time you bluff.

How often?

Although many inexperienced players will consider the bluff as something of a Texas Hold'em fundamental, this isn’t the case. It is perfectly possible to clean out your opponents by maximising your take on strong hands and minimising loses on poor hands. Bluffing too often will generally mean getting found out and losing money over the course of the game.

When?

It’s always a bad idea to enter a hand deciding you’re going to bluff it out regardless. At the risk of stating the obvious, the only time you should bluff is when you firmly believe you can scare your opponents off the pot based on their behaviour up to that point - both in the hand and the game.

Picking your moment can be difficult and will generally come with practice, but there are certain scenarios which readily lend themselves to a bluff.

For one, if you find yourself in last position and everyone else has checked to you, this indicates that they have weak hands. Although there could be a player sitting it out and not wanting to give himself away, a bet at this point will often see an avalanche of cards falling into the centre of the table and you will take the pot.

If you've got cracking pocket cards and decided to raise pre-flop but were disappointed by the flop itself, you can still win the pot off the back of the fact that the table will believe you’ve something special based on your pre-flop bet. Another raise post-flop can be enough to cement their view and scare off anyone who doesn’t at least have a high pair. That said, you should be willing to walk away if you get hit with a re-raise. Not many players will call a bet both pre and post flop without something useful.

If you have a considerably larger stack than your opponent then swinging the led will often scare them off. Players will rarely want to risk leaving the table on a bluff so they will often wait until they have a decent hand - they have more to risk than you do.

However, if you get a player right down to the bare bones he will generally go all in at some point - make sure he doesn’t choose his moment at a point when you’re trying to bluff him.

Then, of course, there is the semi-bluff. If you’re a card away from a straight or a flush you can fire the chips onto the table in the hope that your hand will come up. If you don’t, you’re aggressive play might be enough to scare off the rest of the competition and you take the pot without having anything in hand. Again though, if you get re-raised then slipping quietly from the hand is probably a good idea.