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• Texas Holdem Bluff Strategy
• Texas Holdem Bluffing Strategy Tactics
• Texas Holdem Bluffing Strategy Strategies
• Texas Holdem Bluffing Strategy Rules

Unfortunately, the bluff is a move that is all to often overused and abused by beginner players, which in turn costs them a lot of money. Use this bluffing strategy to help you master the art of bluffing in Texas Hold'em. Why should you bluff in poker? 10 Essential Texas Hold’em Strategy Moves: The Bluff Catcher Winning at poker isn’t all about the fundamentals. There are a handful of special power moves that, when mastered, can make the difference between winning a little and winning a lot.

In Texas Hold Em, The goal of a “bluff” is to get your opponent to fold a hand better than yours. Any time your opponent folds a hand that would normally win, you've made a profitable bluff. It's possible to beat the lower limits in poker without ever bluffing – just waiting for strong hands and value-betting. No, bluffing is similar to any other strategy where a player must first evaluate the current situation to see if the play they'd like to make stands a chance in succeeding. If all the factors seem to make sense, attempt the bluff. If not, then your bluff will be no different then just giving your money away. Bluffing in no-limit hold’em, especially in cash games, is a much more powerful weapon than in limit games. While you’re risking more of your own stack, you’re also putting your opponent to the test by forcing them to call you down for a sizable amount with what may not be the best hand.

Basic Strategy:Tips : Position : Starting Hands : Bluffing : Betting : Money Management

Every poker player loves to bluff. There really is nothing quite as thrilling as pushing your opponent off a hand that they should have won with a well-timed bluff.

Unfortunately, the bluff is a move that is all to often overused and abused by beginner players, which in turn costs them a lot of money. Use this bluffing strategy to help you master the art of bluffing in Texas Hold'em.

Why should you bluff in poker?

It's probably not like you need another reason to try and pull off a bluff as a newer player to the game, but I'm going to give you one anyway.

Bluffing allows you to take down pots that you would not normally have won, whilst adding some sort of 'unpredictability' factor into your play. Therefore if your opponents find it difficult to tell whether you are weak or strong in a hand, it is going to help you win money in the long run.

The less your opponents know about your game in Texas Hold'em, the better.

How to pull off a successful bluff in poker.

If I could tell you how to successfully bluff every time in poker through this one short article, then I would be the most sought-after guy in the world of poker. Having the ability to spot prime opportunities to bluff comes from experience at the table, rather than from a set of specific rules that you might read somewhere. However, this does not mean that I can't give you the groundwork for a good bluffing game...

To pull of a successful bluff, your play needs to fill two criteria:

1. Your last action in the hand should have been strong.
2. Your opponent's last action in the hand should have been weak.

In a way, this basically says that the story of the hand needs to line up correctly, otherwise your bluff will fall apart. If your opponent has been playing weakly and you have been playing strongly, it makes perfect sense to suggest that a further strong play (i.e. a bluff) is likely to win the pot.

Conversely, it is almost suicidal to attempt to bluff an opponent off their hand when they have been playing strongly and you have been playing weakly, because it simply does not line up with the way the rest of the hand has been played. The more believable your bluff is, the greater the chance it has of working.

Having position over your opponent increases the likelihood of your bluff being successful, as you will be able to see whether or not they are weak (by checking) before you decide whether or not to bluff.

How often should you bluff?

Let me start off by saying that you do not need to bluff nearly as much as you might think. Bluffing is a great weapon, but only if it is used at the right time and in the right situations. If you use it too often, your bluffs are going to lose a lot of credibility and you will end up getting caught out and losing chips.

As with a number of other plays in poker, you want the bluffing opportunity to come looking for you, rather than going all out to look for the times you can bluff. The chances are that if you are forcing out a bluff, it's going to be an unprofitable play. Just because you are playing poker, it does not mean that you are obliged to bluff at some point during the session, so keep focused.

When should you bluff?

You should bluff when you are confident that your opponent will fold. A bit of a vague answer I know, but it really is the simple and most effective answer to the question. However, I will give you a few more bluffing tips to help you along.

It is better to bluff at smaller pots than it is at larger ones.

Bluffing at smaller pots is a lot less risky, and therefore is not so detrimental when things do not work out how you planned. This is an especially good tip if you are a new player, as it allows you to get to grips with bluffing without putting too much of your money at risk.

Bluffing on the flop can be very effective.

About two thirds of the the time your opponent is going to completely miss the flop. On top of this, even if they do hit the flop a little, the chances are that they are going to fold if they come up against too much resistance. It is a lot easier to fold and save money rather than risking a lot with a mediocre hand. So if you were the raiser before the flop, a continuation bet can prove to be a very effective play

Avoid bluffing the river.

This is not to say that bluffing on the river is always wrong, but a lot of the time a river bluff is a poorly executed play. Players will usually bluff on the river in a last desperate attempt to win the hand, regardless of how they have played up to that point.

This makes the river bluff look completely out of place, and is very easy to spot if you are an experienced player. So as a general rule of thumb, avoid bluffing on the river unless you are completely sure about what you are doing.

Randomly bluffing on the river is one of the biggest leaks in an amateur player's game.

Poker bluffing strategy overview.

As much as you might love to bluff, you have to learn to put a leash on your bluffing tendencies to keep them under control. It's not easy to snap out of the bluffing lifestyle, but if you want to become a winning poker player, it is something that you are going to have to suck up and get on with.

The next time you have the burning urge to bluff, close your eyes and click fold, then see what happens. It won't hurt as much as you think, and you will have probably saved yourself a nice bit of money. Bluffing can work incredibly well in the right situations, but there really is no need to focus your game around this play. Bluffing is a tool, not a game plan.

Go back to the sublime Texas Hold'em guide.

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All winning Texas holdem players bluff. But most losing Texas
holdem players bluff too. The difference between the winners and
the losers is knowing when to do it.

You’ll find there are different types of bluffs and to be a
long term winning player you need to know each type and
understand when and how to use them for maximum profit.

Straight Bluffs

A straight bluff is when your only chance of winning the hand
is if your opponent or opponents fold. This often happens when
you miss a draw or your opponent hits a better hand on their
draw.

When your opponent hits a better hand by hitting their draw
it’s almost impossible to bluff them out of the hand. It’s not
always easy to see when they hit a draw, but the more you study
them and how they play the more likely you’ll be to put them on
a hand.

In the hands where you miss your draw you need to try to
determine if your opponent can predict that you missed your draw
by the board cards and the way you’ve been playing and you need
to figure out how strong their hand is.

For a straight bluff to work your opponent needs to be
convinced your hand is better than theirs and if they know what
they’re doing you need to make sure they’re not getting the
correct pot odds to call even if they think they’ll lose most of
the time.

If this all sounds complicated, that’s because it is
complicated. This is why it’s so hard to run successful straight
bluffs.

You’re drawing to an open end straight but don’t complete
your straight. You’ve been betting aggressively and the board
doesn’t show anything that looks too dangerous. You bet on the
river because the only way you can win is if your opponent
folds. This bluff has a decent chance of success because it’s
almost impossible for your opponent to put you on a straight
draw. You’ve also been betting aggressively making it look like
you have a strong hand from the start.

The flop has two cards of the same suit and you’re drawing to
a flush. Your opponent bets and you call on the flop and the
turn. On the river you don’t complete your flush and your
opponent bets. If you call you lose so you have to either fold
or raise. It’s almost impossible to get your opponent to fold in
this situation because you played the hand in a weak manner and
it looks obvious that you were drawing to the flush and missed.

Semi Bluffs

A semi bluff is when you have a hand that may or may not be
good, but you also have a draw to a better hand.

You see the flop with the ace and queen of clubs and the flop
has two clubs and the ace of diamonds. This gives you the top
pair and a draw to the flush. You want to play this hand
aggressively, even if another player is also playing
aggressively.

Semi bluffs don’t have to be as clear cut as this example.
You may pair your queen with four to a flush or have two pair
with a board that shows a possible flush.

Most of your bluffs should be semi bluffs where you have a
chance to win even when you get called.

When You Should

The short answer is you should bluff any time a bluff offers
the best positive expectation situation. This means that if a
bluff makes more money than any other option in the long run, or
loses less than any other option, you should do it.

You’re in a hand where you missed your draw and the pot has
$100 in it and you’re first to act against a single opponent. If
you check and your opponent checks you lose the hand. If you
check and your opponent bets you’ll either have to fold or
raise. If you bet your opponent can call or raise, in which you
lose, or they can fold.

In this example your only two real options are check and fold
to a raise, or bet. Checking means you have no chance to win so
the only real question is if you bet will it be profitable in
the long run. Here’s how you determine this:

If you bet $20 how often does your opponent have to fold to
show a long term profit?

Texas Holdem Bluff Strategy

Let’s look at what happens if you do this 100 times:

• Betting $20 100 times means you put a total of $2,000 in
  the pot.
• When you win you get back your $20 plus the $100 in the
  pot.
• So you simply divide the $2,000 investment by the $120
  you get back to see what the break-even point is.
• You have to make your opponent fold 16.67% of the time
  to break even.
• So if they fold 17 out of 100 times, or more, you’ve
  made a profitable play.

You can determine the percentages using different size bets
to find the one that gives you the best chance to win.

Once you know the answer to how many times they have to fold,
the only thing you need to figure out is if they’ll fold this
many times or not. In the example above, the odds are high that
your opponent will fold at least one out of every five times, or
20%, so you should make the bet.

You also need to recognize these numbers when you’re on the
other side of the picture. If you think it’s possible your
opponent is bluffing you need to use the same type of
calculations to determine if a call is profitable in the long
run.

When You Shouldn’t

On the other side of the discussion, when you shouldn’t bluff
is determined much the same way as when you should. If it’s not
going to be profitable in the long run you shouldn’t bluff.

We’ve already mentioned one situation where it’s probably not
profitable to make a bluff. When you miss a flush draw it’s
often obvious that you’re bluffing. But you can use this same
mentality to extract extra money when you have two pair or a set
and it looks like you missed a flush. When you bet in this
situation you’ll almost always get called.

Use the same calculations you learned about in the last
section and combine the numbers with your knowledge of your
opponent and what has happened during the current hand. Try to
determine what your opponent holds and try to figure out what
they think you have.

Texas Holdem Bluffing Strategy Tactics

How Often

The bad news is there isn’t a magic number or percentage of
times you should be bluffing. Proper bluffs depend on too many
variables that constantly change to be able to pinpoint a set
percentage of hands.

But the good news is you can probably improve your bluffing
game immediately by doing one simple thing. Start tracking how
often you bluff now and start bluffing half of the times you’re
bluffing now.

The reasons most players bluff too much is it’s exciting to
try to fool your opponent and when you watch poker on television
you see a bunch of bluffs. The poker shows cut out most of the
boring hands and because bluffs are exciting they get shown more
often than many other types of hands.

Your other option is to stop bluffing entirely for the next
several playing sessions and then just start using semi bluffs
from time to time. Then slowly start using a real bluff no more
than once per playing session.

Almost every long term losing Texas holdem player bluffs too
often. Even some of the better players bluff a little bit too
often, but they’re good enough in other parts of their game they
can cover up some of their faults.

The bottom line is if you want to start improving your
results you should immediately stop bluffing so much.

Bad Players and Good Players

One complaint that you’ll hear often is about when a player
makes what they think is a great bluff but a player calls them
and they start whining about how they can’t bluff a bad player.
They say this like they’d rather be playing against great
players.

It’s silly to want to play against better players. The way
you make money playing holdem is by playing against players who
aren’t as good as you.

Many poor players are hard to bluff because they call almost
any bet. But good players recognize this and stop bluffing
against the poor payers. Instead, bet your good hands against
the poor players because they’re more likely to pay you off.

Making bluffs work is as much about understanding the
psychology of poker and poker players and using it to your
advantage as anything else.

Years ago I was playing a no limit cash game and one of the
players was a hot shot kid who thought he was God’s gift to
poker players. He was convinced he was the best player in the
room and that he could outplay anyone and everyone.

We got involved in a heads up pot where I raised before the
flop, bet on the flop, and bet on the turn. I started the hand
with suited connectors and flopped a straight draw. I played the
hand aggressively but didn’t complete the straight. The raise
and bets I made before the river were normal size.

I knew that the only way I win the hand is by betting the
correct amount to get him to fold. Many players mistakenly think
they need to bet a lot to make their opponent fold. This is true
in some situations, but this guy thought he was so good that he
could lay down a hand in any situation proving he could read you
and your hand.

So in this situation a move all in would look like a bluff
and probably get called. So I took a long time to act, trying to
look like I was determining the perfect bet size to get him to
call, making it look like I was trying to extract the last
little bit of profit from him, and I made a very small bet.

The pot odds he was getting were so good that a good player
would never lay the hand down. But he wasn’t a good player, he
just thought he was. He thought a good player could lay down a
hand for a small bet and it made him look smart, but his ego
forced him to make a bad play.

He folded and I won the pot.

This is a perfect example of trying to understand your
opponents and how they think and figuring out a way to use it
against them. He could have called and I wouldn’t be writing
about the experience here, but until he actually became a player
that was almost as good as he thought he was, he’ll continue
making mistakes like the one we just went over.

You can learn a few lessons from this example:

• Always consider the pot odds when deciding whether to
  fold or call
• Always try to conceal how good or bad you really are at
  the poker table
• Don’t make yourself a target at the poker table
• Learn as much about your opponents as possible

Conclusion

Bluffing is exciting and can be addicting. Just remember to
make sure a bluff is the most profitable long term play before
you try it.

Texas Holdem Bluffing Strategy Strategies

Always try to learn as much as possible about your opponents
so you can find the best times and situations to run a bluff.
Everything you learn about your opponents can mean more profit
in the long run.

Texas Holdem Bluffing Strategy Rules

And don’t forget to cut your bluffing in half starting today.
It’s almost guaranteed to increase your profits, and you might
find that you need to cut it in half again to increase your
winnings even more.