Poker Bluffing

A poker bluffing is the sexiest part of the poker betting actions. A poker bluff is a bet or a raise made with a hand that has no chance of winning. Except when it's plainly stupid, it is bold, daring and exciting action. Aside from the adrenaline rush of winning something significant, bluffing gets the juices flowing much more than other actions, especially things like folding or calling or betting the best hand. The purpose of a bluff is to win a pot when your hand is not strong enough to do so on it’s own. You are essentially representing a big hand when in reality you have nothing. Bluffing is a very valuable weapon to have in your poker arsenal but you should make sure you use it correctly and don’t over use it. Bluffing feeds the same human desires as riding a rollercoaster or seeing a scary movie. People like semi-living on the edge. Needless edge-play though not only becomes foolhardy, it takes the edge off the edge.

So in this online poker games we will speak about bluffing, online bluffing, how to read bluffs at poker games and many interesting things. Our purpose here is to be able to win more with bluffs than with strong poker hands. There are two types of poker bluffs – a Pure Bluff and a Semi-Bluff.

Pure bluff

A Pure bluffing is a bet or raise made with a hand that has no chance of winning. Player making a pure bluff believes that he can only win the pot if all opponents fold. The need is to win a pot when your hand is not strong enough to do so on it’s own. The pot odds for a bluff are the ratio of the size of the bluff to the pot. A pure bluff should have a positive expectation when the probability is being called by an opponent, lower than the pot odds for the bluff. You are essentially representing a big hand when in reality you have nothing. You may remind that Bluffing is a very valuable weapon to have in your poker arsenal but you should make sure you use it correctly and don’t overuse it.

Bluffing can work well in higher limit games especially against tight players. If the pot is on the small side, your bluff has a better chance of working than if it were a large pot. A large pot can give someone the correct pot odds to stay in the game.

Semi-bluffing

Semi-bluffing is a profitable technique that is used instead of a pure bluff. In games with multiple betting rounds, to bluff on one round with an inferior or drawing hand that might improve in a later round is called a semi-bluff. You would use a semi-bluff when your hand is not strong enough to win but might be if you are able to improve it. By betting, you are looking for the other players to fold so that you will win the pot right then and there.

Semi-bluffing in Texas Holdem is best utilized in bluffing situations. The reason for this is that most players won’t realize exactly when (or if) you made your draw improving your hand. A player making a semi-bluff can win the pot two different ways: by all opponents folding immediately or by catching a card to improve the player's hand. In some cases a player may be on a draw but with odds strong enough that he is favored to win the hand. In this case his bet is not classified as a semi-bluff even though his bet may force opponents to fold hands with better current strength.