The Art of Bluffing

Anyone who plays or watches poker, knows that bluffing and tells are a very important part of any poker game.

Bluffing is when you bet or raise a weak hand in order to try to make all the other players fold. Tells are the acts, gestures and other mannerisms of a player that give you a clue as to what they are holding.

Online Bluffing Basics

Beginners should only use bluffing after taking the following into consideration:

1. Bluffing is only effective at high limit or no limit games. At low limit games, for a couple of chips, most of the time someone will call your bluff.
2. Bluffs work best against strong, tight players. Loose players will often call you bet just to see what you are holding. Strong players won't call as many bluffs unless they have very strong cards or have picked up on your tells.
3. In a tournament, bluffs often work best against a short stack. Players with a larger chip count can absorb a loss and are more likely to call. Players with a short stack usually play more conservatively to protect their chips. In a cash game, however, the short stack players often feel protected from a big loss, and are more likely to call a big bluff from you with only decent holdings, whereas a player with a deeper stack will tend to want to protect it by not getting involved in a big pot without a big hand.
4. The goal of bluffing is to make everyone fold; the less people you are trying to bluff, the better the odds of everyone calling your bluff. It is extremely rare that you can bluff more than one or two people out of a pot.
5. Bluffs are best executed from late position whenever possible. This will give you a better indication of the strength of the other player hands. If everyone is checking, calling, or folding in front of you, it is the best time to try to steal the pot – if there are raises in front of you, bluffing will rarely be the right move.
6. Bluffing works best when players perceive you as a strong, tight player. They are more likely to believe you have a strong hand when you generally only play strong hands. Play at a table for a while and build your image before trying to bluff. When new players enter a game, don't bluff until they have a measure of you and you of them.

Remember that this just the tip of the iceberg. Bluffing is an art form, and the tips above are just the starting point to get your wheels turning. The bottom line lesson here is that by building your image as a strong player and picking your spots carefully, you can steal a lot of pots, and win lots of cash!

Online Tells

All poker players display tells that give you clues about the strength of their hand. In the brick and mortar world, players say various things; act weak when they are strong; throw their chips around; look away or stare at you; and so on. Learning to properly interpret these actions is difficult but will certainly be an asset when you're trying to win a pot. For example, a slight widening of the eyes or dilating of the pupils is often an indicator (or tell) of a very strong hand. This is one reason that so many poker players wear sunglasses at the table. Unfortunately, you cannot pick up on these tells when playing online. However, you can look at the following tips to give you clues about how to read your opponent's tells:

1. Speed of Play (not including autoplay). While good indicators are deduced from speed of play, the actual meaning of a certain speed varies from player to player. The best way to learn what a delay indicates is to study the player. Some players take a long pause while deciding how to play their strong hand. A quick bet from that player may mean a bluff. Study the player’s timing and review the hand history after the game is over. Once you have a feel for the other player, make sure that you also remember that delays sometimes occur for reasons other than players thinking about how to play a certain situation. In online play your connection may go down briefly (or theirs) making it seem like they bet slowly when in fact the bet very quickly.
2. Flop percentage. Typically, strong players play only 20-30% of hands dealt. If a player often folds, they probably have a strong hand when they play. If the player stays in almost every pot, they generally play weak hands and so while you can bet for value against them, they call everything, and so they are unlikely to fold to a bluff.
3. Auto Play boxes. You can tell when a player has used an autoplay check box (such as check, fold, call any), because their action comes immediately before (often it looks like they came at the same time). When a player has checked 'raise any', it indicates a very strong hand. If they use 'check', you can assume they have a weak hand, although sometimes players will auto-check and then raise when it comes back around to them, in which case their hand is almost always a monster. If they call quickly, maybe they have a draw hand and are not ready to fold yet. While these are not always correct assumptions, by watching players over time, you can begin to draw conclusions about their use of check boxes.
4. Chat usage. The "chattiness" of a player can be an obvious tell, both online and at brick and mortar poker rooms. If someone is chatty and they get quiet all of a sudden, this normally indicates they have a good hand. They may be thinking more about their cards and how to play them. Other things to look for are people talking smack, complaining often or aggressively. Players that suddenly start being antagonistic are probably bluffing and attempting to show how confident they are with their cards. Players that are not in control of their emotions are unable to play good poker until they can calm down. Players who are on tilt are bad to bluff against, because they’ll call much more than they would when they’re thinking straight.