Poker Tactics - The Art of Bluffing

There is one thing that is really misunderstood about bluffing by most people that don't play poker is that bluffing is a big part of the game.  It isn't. You can't scare someone with good cards away with bluffing - in fact, they are most likely to appreciate you running up the bets while they get ready to win.  Bluffing is when you pretend to have a better hand, most times by betting on bad hand, and it only works if people with better cards give up their cards and let you win. Of course, sometime people bet on speculation that the next card will be better, that is still a bluff when you don't have the cards to begin with.  For any bluff to work it needs to be believable and so you need to understand it.

Bluffing takes skill and it takes some luck.  In fact, I would argue bluffing only works in one case.  When you are winning. You may get lucky by position when you bet on a hand and you are hoping for a card and someone mistakes your bet for a good hand already.  Or if the other players have shown their weakness by checking, and then you raise you may fool beginners and you may scare off experienced players. 

But I have found bluffing only works, in general, when you have been winning and the other players are scared that you have got them again.  I can remember a time when I had a pair of fours, hole cards, and I was running up the bets on a table.  I made most of them quit - except the eventual winner that had two Kings - because I had won some monster pots before that. I almost made him give up two kings because I had beaten them all in recent history with some lucky hands. I had won with a flush, a straight and even a straight flush before that point and that is what almost convinced him to lay down a great hand.  My neighbor went all-in with pocket eights and I ended up beating him with pocket nines!  All that winning made them believe I was holding better cards all the time. Almost enough to surrender a pair of Kings!

Of course, the poker championship events we see on TV tell a story of lots of people folding good hands to a losing hand that was bluffed well.  But we do not see all the times when those bluffing people pulled off extreme upsets against other players and the aura and the experience made the other players stop and think.  Is this going to be a big mistake if I raise a hand I am not sure of?

So I would argue that bluffing is better left until you have won some hands, some lucky hands is better, and then use that personal aura and momentum to help you in a pinch when you need that little extra assistance. But don't mistake it for good cards It is no substitute.

Poker is an art and a science.  Bluffing is part of the art. And the virtue of any art is that a master artist knows when to use it skillfully and when not to.