Bluffing has long been one of the hardest skills to master, as it involves a combination of nerves and deception. While lying to someone may be easy when nothing is on the line, the same cannot be said when you are trying to win a $500 pot.
It takes a long time to develop the mental state of mind necessary to effectively pull off bluffs and there is a great deal more to mastering the art than simply betting when you do not have a hand.
Why Some Bluffs Fail
There is one fundamental reason why the majority of bluffs fail and that is because the player attempting the bluff did so when their opponent was not convinced they were beaten.
For a bluff to work you need to ensure that it fits the timing and nature of the current hand. You do not want your opponent to think you are bluffing; otherwise they will call you with any medium-strength hand. Instead, you must create the illusion that you have a hand of enough value that it was the correct move for you to bet, thus putting the pressure on the other player.
How To Make Your Bluff Work
The easiest way to ruin a bluff opportunity is to do something that breaks the flow of the story you are trying to tell. If you raise before the flop in early position, but then check on the flop and the turn, only to fire off a small bet on the river, you did absolutely nothing in the hand to convey that you are in a position of power.
However, if you continued to play aggressively, post-flop and continued to show the same strength that you had, pre-flop, it becomes much easier to convince the other players that you have a considerable hand.
Bluff The Players Who Show Weakness
Another incredibly important factor in bluffing is timing. A bluff will typically only work against an opponent that has a marginal or worse hand. Someone with three of a kind on a rainbow flop with no straight possibilities will be almost impossible to bluff and you need to be able to recognise situations where a bluff will definitely not work.
Instead, you should be looking for scenarios where you are reading weakness on an opponent’s hand, where you can time a bluff attempt. If you continue to fire powerless bluffs at players with strong hands, you will lose all credibility on future bluffs.
Key Points
• Do not randomly bluff at pots.
• Make sure your bluff fits the nature of the current hand.
• Avoid bluffing against opponents who are conveying strength.
• Look for situations where opponents are showing weakness.
