32Red Poker Blog

The Art of Bluffing

If you were to learn poker just from TV shows, you would believe that the game is all about bluffing. This is not quite the case, but the skills of creating a good bluff and spotting a bad one are integral to the game.

What is a good Poker bluff?

When someone is telling a lie, the tale they tell must be consistent with the facts available. If parts of the tale do not fit with what you can see, you become suspicious.

And so in poker, a good bluff is one that tells a believable story. The “lie” you are telling is that your hand has connected with the board in a big way. The tale you tell must mirror that.

This means that when you bluff, your sequence of raises and re-raises should look like they would do if you held a good hand.  The bad bluffer plays his big hands in one way, and his bluffs in another.  

Poker Bluff Example

The flop comes ; our player in question has called a raise from the big blind. Let’s imagine two different scenarios. Firstly he has  for an open-ended straight draw, and secondly , for the top two pair on the flop.

You will see many bad players check with the two pair hand in order to check raise, but lead out with a bet with the  drawing hand. Once a good player has detected this pattern, the bad bluffer will fare miserably. His strong hands will not be paid off, and his bluffs will be caught.

Consistency of story

A bluffer can be caught when his claim to have a big hand is not consistent with how he has bet.

Let’s say we hold , and the flop comes . Our opponent makes a pot-sized bet; we feel we may be ahead, and call. We check the  turn, and our opponent checks behind.
Another blank on the river makes the board ; we check again, and our opponent once again bets the pot. Is he bluffing?

Certainty does not exist in poker, but I would make a very quick call here, and feel close to certain that we are ahead. The reason is that our opponent’s story does not fit at all with any good hand.

Let’s examine the claim he has made that he has us beat:-

He flopped a big hand - This claim is let down as soon as our opponent’s bet on the flop is followed by a check on the turn. If he had a big hand that he could bet on the flop, he would surely bet it again on the  turn, which has not changed the board. When we call on the flop, he may well believe that we ourselves have a draw. If he had a good hand, he would be forced to bet again to deny us a free card.

His hand is more marginal, but has us beat- There is a possibility that our opponent has something like  or , and checked on the turn because he was not sure if his marginal hand was ahead. However, this claim loses a lot of credibility when our opponent makes such a big bet on the end. With a marginal hand, a small value bet is far more commonly seen.

We can be fairly sure that our opponent has very little, and the hand I would most expect to see turned over would be something like , a busted flush draw.

How could our opponent have bluffed better?

Let’s reserve the situation, and say you hold the  on the

 board.

A semi-bluff is definitely a good idea. Before deciding anything, allow yourself to imagine that you actually have , and have flopped top pair, top kicker. Bluff your flush draw as you would bet your strong hand; the best way to do this might be to bet just 2/3 of the pot on the flop. If this fails, a follow up bet of 2/3 of the flop on the turn tells a good story, and will be difficult for your opponent to call.

Good bluff vs bad bluff

We have called a raise from the big blind with , and go heads up to a flop of . We have flopped a flush draw and gutshot straight draw, but miss the turn and river, as the board comes . Our opponent holds  for a flopped one pair- can we win the hand with nothing?

The bad bluff would go something like this. We check the flop, and our opponent bets. We have a good draw and so call, and the same bet and call happens on the turn. The river disappoints us, and we now know the only way we can win the hand is to lead out with a bluff. If our opponent is unsure, he will almost definitely shrug his shoulders and make the call. He should, however, call with confidence; we have not painted a good picture of having a big hand.

The good bluff would be to check the flop, in order to check raise. If we make the raise small, it looks even more like we have flopped a big hand. Now, if our opponent calls, we reinforce our claim with a strong looking 2/3 pot bet on the turn. Our opponent may well start to worry that we have flopped a set or two pair, and may give us the pot.