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No Foolin’ - There are Different Ways to Bluff

March 5, 2008

No matter how good you might be at playing Texas Hold ‘em, sometimes the cards just aren’t going to be dealt your way. But you still want to win the hand, right? You still want to keep up some momentum on your way to winning a tournament? Well, you still can. In fact, if you don’t learn to win with bad cards, you will never reach the big-time type of competition that you want.

So how do you do it? How do you win if you have nothing? The strategy is called bluffing. Sure, you’ve hard about it. But it’s not as simple as you think. It’s about exerting your control over everyone else at the table.

There are some specific ways that you can turn bluffing into another weapon in your poker playing arsenal. You need to learn not only the best time to do it, but the best way to do it. And you might be surprise that there are different kinds of bluff? Do you believe that? Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Ok, there really are different forms of bluffs. The first is what you know the most about. That’s when a player a player puts down a huge bet when they have cards that should give you no business winning. In order to pull off the Big Bet Bluff without someone calling you, you have to be in just the right spot. You need to be the last person to act and be the biggest better. If someone else has shown the tendency to throw down big, they’ll have nerves just as tough as yours. It’s best if your Big Bet Bluff follows everyone else checking, which would indicate they don’t have much.

Another way to bluff is when you are gambling big on a hand that could be huge or could be a disaster. This usually comes when you are waiting for a card to fill out a flush or a straight. This Hopeful Bluff will force you to weigh the chances that you’ll get your card with the chances everyone at the table will back down. But if they re-raise, the odds may be working against you.

The most skillful bluff you can pull off is the Flopmaster Bluff. With this bet, you have to start your bluff as soon as the game starts. You need to knock people out of the game as you are building up to the flop. You have to bet, act and sit like you have a solid hand from the deal and that the flop makes it better. Bet strong from the start and convince players that you have three or four of a kind and you will have a quick strike win.

Another benefit of the Flopmaster Bluff is it gets your opponents thinking about what you are going to do from the very start of the game. You are keeping them on the defensive, while you fit the role of the dominant player. Is there a better way to start a game than that? And when you win that hand, they will never have to know it was a bluff. When your opponents are thinking about what you’re doing, they aren’t thinking about what they’re doing themselves. That will add up to more winnings for you!

Written by Tom · Filed Under Poker Strategy |  

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