Bluffing Your Way to the Pot

Bluffing is both a skill and an art that could make or unmake the successful poker player. Poker is played both in the virtual and real worlds and it would be pretty much more difficult to spot a bluff when playing online poker than when you are sitting at a poker table in a brick and mortar casino.

If you are the one doing the bluffing, your invisibility in an online casino will work to your advantage since your opponents won't be able to see the beads of perspiration on your forehead, the shifty eye movements and the tremors on your hand. But if you are the one trying to catch your online opponent's bluff, you would equally be disadvantaged because you won't be able to see in your PC monitor your opponent's lips tremble or the panicky movements of his body.

Here are a few pointers that would help you develop and refine a winning bluffing strategy whenever you play online poker:

If you detect desperation in your opponents, don't bluff them because a player who is short on stack will most likely call your bluff. If your short-stacked opponent figures out that he is only up against you, he might very well take the calculated risk of doubling up and getting back in the game regardless of your hand.

Never bluff when you are not in the position. Don't bluff when you are participating, for instance, at a Sit & Go tournament and are the first to bet. There is a pretty good chance that the more people who follow you in the betting, the bigger the possibility that your call will be called. Just like your bankroll, save your bluffs.

When a large pot is at stake, be very careful and circumspect at bluffing. If, for instance, you put on a bluff not early enough during a hand, the pot would have grown large enough and your opponent will realize that he is getting more value for his money and will just call your bluff.

There is a right place and a right time to bluff. Freeroll tournaments, for example, do not present a good bluffing environment because players will almost certainly call you thinking they are not risking their own money. However, at a high entry tournament, putting on a large bluff will make your opponents think twice before they call you because nobody wants to go out early after putting up such a large stake.

Don't be like the boy "who cried 'Wolf.'" Don't bluff people left and right because once they catch you doing a bluff, you'll have a darn hard job pulling off a successful bluff ever again at the same table. Use your bluffs wisely and sparingly. Finding the right timing to put on a bluff is just as critical as the bluff itself.