Tips for making sure more of your bluffs work – if others have been calling them quite often

by Ryan Eva

Bluffing in poker is not easy despite the notion popularized in TV shows and movies that players can pull off “stone-cold” bluffs with ease at every opportunity. In real games, both online and at physical tables, to work, the act of bluffing needs to be measured and used at the right time.

If your bluffs are regularly being called by other players,it is probably because there is no real strategy behind them. Simply making bluffs for the sake of it won’t work 99% of the time. You need to try and apply pressure while “representing” a stronger hand and making your opponent think you have something for your bluffs to come off successfully.

To hone your bluffing skills, you first need to navigate to an online casino site offering poker games. You can compare the latest deals at Poker Compare. Here you can get a comprehensive overview of promotions at different sites and learn more about each of them before signing up. You can also activate welcome bonuses and other offers when you first make a deposit.

When you start playing poker regularly, you will get more of a “feel” of when to bluff and when not to. Bluffing requires you to analyze different game dynamics and “tells” to evaluate whether it is worthwhile. Because bluffing is an aggressive action, you need to do it at the right time. This is usually when you think it is likely that it will force an opponent to fold.

Bluffing with the primary aim of increasing the pot size is not a worthwhile move as you need to be prettysure that it will be profitable. That is why stake sizes, chip stacks, your position at the table, opponent personalities, and your own “image” all need to be factored into the decision.

If your bluffs are being called regularly, it might be due to stake sizes. There is less on the line with micro stakes games, and other players are more likely to call your bets. When you move up to higher stakes, you will find more players will read the game and other players, which gives you the chance to implement an effective, balanced bluffing strategy.

To increase the success rate of your bluffs, you should first focus on your opponent and read their hand “ranges.” You can do this pre and post-flop by keeping track of their betting sizes and actions. By narrowing down an opponent’s potential hand types, you can make better betting decisions during the hand.

Bluffing also requires a focus on betting sizes. When representing a hand, you need to act and bet like you have that hand. Poker players bet for “value” when they have a great hand as they are trying to extract the most money from other players. If you use different bet sizes with your bluffs, experienced players will realize you don’t have anything.

Finally, bluffs should be reassessed on every street. That means you don’t have to continue with a big bluff on the turn just because you did so after the flop. The main takeaway is always to consider in-game dynamics, your betting patterns, and your opponent’s hands when trying to bluff effectively.

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