Bluffing

We have covered the mathematical aspects of Poker in the articles on pot odds but we play Poker against other people and this makes the psychological strategies critical to your success. There are three main strategies at our disposal. Bluffing, Semi-bluffing and Slowplaying.

Bluffing

When we are bluffing someone we are trying to scare them into folding. This involves two things creating a fear of loss and an expectation or belief that your threat is a real one. At low Limit  Poker, a $2/$4 game for example, your opponents will not be afraid to lose their bet and will call you out of curiosity so forget bluffing at low Limits. Similarly bluffing will generally work better in No-Limit Poker than Limit Poker.

Bluffing that you have a mysterious good hand will not work. You have to give the impression that you have a particular hand to make the threat 'real' for example there is an Ace on the board at the flop to create the impression that you have a pair of Aces raise. There are two suited cards on the board make out that you are on for a flush draw and at the Turn or River that you have got it. Bluffing will work better with fewer players in the hand.

Semi-Bluffing

Semi-bluffing can be thought of as over betting on the probability of hitting a Drawing hand. Suppose you have Ad, Qd and the flop is 9d,5d,3s on the Turn or River you could hit either a high pair or a flush. Having this real possibility of hitting a good draw may help players new to bluffing give the right impression. Again Semi-Bluffing works best in No-Limit games.

Slowplaying

In some ways Slowplaying is the opposite of Bluffing in that you are trying to make your opponents think that your hand is worse than it really is. The reason you would want to do this is that you want to lure them into making bets and raises to fatten up the pot which you will almost certainly win rather than scaring them into folding early. For example you have a pair of Queens in your hand and the Flop is a Queen and a pair of 4's. You have got a Full House and you will win the pot. Under bet by checking until the Turn or River and then raise and re-raise so that the pot is bigger.

Slowplaying works best if your hand is the 'nuts' and certain to win because the board cards are such that your hole cards make up the best hand possible with them. It is important that your opponents think they have a chance of winning because they also have a good hand in our example they may have three 4's. Watch out for situations where they might think that they have a good hand because of the Board