Poker – A Liar’s Game?
Being successful in poker isn’t simply about the strategy of how you play your cards but more about how you play your opponents and their perception of you and your level of play.
Due to this fact, both live and online poker are riddled with players who like to play what is referred to as either a ‘Bluff’ or ‘Semi Bluff’, a form of play that sees a player represent a hand that they aren’t holding with the view to make their opponent think that you are either holding a stronger hand than you really are or that you holding a hand of a lower value with the thought of drawing your opponent further into the pot, increasing your potential winnings.
Although bluffing is required to be used within a poker game in order to be able to maximum your winning percentages, too many new and inexperienced players feel that there is no methodology behind playing this form of play and often find that they are getting called or even re-raised.
So with bluffing becoming a part of even a professional poker players playing style, you need to be able to choose your hands and timing within the game to execute these successfully.
The first thing that you need to be aware of is exactly what the two terms ‘Bluff’ and ‘Semi Bluff’ mean so that you can accurately decide which of the two you are effectively playing in any given situation in that you are looking to represent a hand that you aren’t holding.
What does the term ‘Bluff’ mean?
The term ‘Bluff’ is used when a player is trying to convince their opponent that they are holding a hand which in fact is more superior than what is represented within the hand that you are currently holding.
Playing a bluff is showing the willingness to wager further chips into a central pot in order to play on the factor of fear within a players mind, leaving them having to rethink their play as well as your betting pattern during the current hand.
Playing a bluff correctly can not only leave you winning a pot that you should have lost but it also means that you are actively protecting the chips that you placed into the hand before your hand became as low strength as it is at the time that you opt to play the bluff.
Although winnings pots without needing the cards to do so is something that every poker player would give their left arm for, you have to realise that there is a huge risk factor in terms of playing this form of play, at the end of the day, you are investing more chips into a central pot when you know that any player who refuses to lay down their hand could call and leave you in a very poor position.
What does the term ‘Semi Bluff’ mean?
Playing a semi bluff is still a form of playing a bluff but you have more chance of winning the hand due to the fact that you still either represent some sort of strength within the hand or you still have outs.
A great example of when a semi bluff is used within a game of poker can be given in terms of when a player who is looking to make a draw of some kind, flush or straight, bets into the central pot while still requiring one more card to make their hand.
Semi bluffs offer more of a safety net than a standard out and out bluff due to the fact that you could still be holding the best hand at the time of a showdown should it progress that far.
So does bluffing truly work?
Well there have been a number of players who have been questioning as to whether the use of bluffing actually works within a game of poker and the honest truth is that it does.
Playing poker at a low stake will increase your chances of bluffs being called by opponents as many of these players who will be seated around you will either not be playing to a high standard or could even be new to the game with very little or no understanding of the strategy involved in the game.
The best piece of advice that I was given was from a friend of mine who recently got caught out trying to play a bluff during a high stakes game, he played the bluff but was called by a player who was holding nothing but bottom pair while there were four over cards sat on the community board.
After losing the hand, he turned to me and said that there is no bluffing a bad player.
In review of this comment, you can see exactly what he meant, if a player has a poor understanding of the game or they are simply on tilt and calling anything that is thrown their way, playing any form of bluff successfully against this player is almost impossible.
