Perhaps the most popular part of poker is the poker bluff. It is also the most misunderstood. A poker bluff is basically a way of acting or betting with the opposite hand or hands. Bluffing is horizontally, vertically or diagonally. It is also known as slow playing, sandbagging, trip-rapid, andiates.
Imagine you are on the river after you’ve seen the third card. There is a flush draw with an Ace on the board so you have a chance of getting five outs to match the card on the board. You may also have a straight draw so you need another card to finish the straight, or a low pair to win with the board having three low cards. In either case, you have a good poker hand.
A good 7meter player will either make a bet that is comfortable or will raise the bet on the river, or sometimes he will check and let you build the pot up against him. There are many bluffs including the semi-bluff, the wheel, the straight steal and the river fold.
When you are playing against a player that does not know how to bluff, poker becomes very simple. Sometimes you can just force him to fold with a bet because you know he will fold either way. However, against better players, you need to identify their skill level and bet with them accordingly.
There are websites that have charts that tell you what to do, however the better armed you are the better your chances will be. There are also strategies that involve reading your opponent’s hand and capitalizing on your hand.
Against weaker poker players, you can scare them into thinking you have a better hand by betting strong. If you have a couple of lower pairs, you can make a smaller bet to get more information. If you have a middle pair, try to increase the pot to make your opponents think you have higher cards than you really do.
What to do in the event that you are dealt a strong hand is not as simple as throwing money at them, you need to use your skills to get them to fold by trading them in for smaller hands. They may work, they may not, but against weaker players, you will usually get more information to work with than against better players.
This does not apply to blind plays where you should ride them all the way to the river. You need to pick your spots more carefully.
When you have a monster, you want to make them believe that you have a sure win so you can extract as much money as possible from them. If you are in the blinds and no-one contests the pot, you will almost always get some action, which will give you an opportunity to set up a bet on the flop and an ante. Any old hand will do to get your monster built. A suited connector would be better than an Ace or King, since you will have a better chance of getting three of the same suit to make a set.
As the blinds get larger, hands that were worth seeing a flop with become less profitable. This is still not to say they are unplayable, but rather that it is more profitable to be aggressive in later positions and look for locks or strong opinions to play at the river. As far as bankroll management, it is still important to play these hands in the later positions. They are just different types of hands that require different tactics.
Whether you play online or offline, you want to develop your skills as you play no limit poker. There is no Breakeven or automatically unbeatable hand when you play at no limit poker tables. Learn to play and beat your opponents.
