Learn To Play Poker. Tips When Bluffing at Poker

If you are learning to play poker then, at some stage, you will need to add the art of bluffing into your game. Bluffing, put simply, is the act of representing that you are holding a stronger hand than you actually are. It is a technique which is performed better – and therefore more often used – by some players than others.


■Use the ‘semi-bluff’ first when learning to play poker. A semi-bluff involves falsely representing that you have an excellent hand, in cases when you have quite a good hand. Take the case where 3 hearts, including the 10, have appeared on the flop and you are holding another 10. If you make a large raise, you are representing to the other players that you hold 2 hearts and have a flush. In actual fact, you have a pair of 10s, which is a much weaker hand but not an outrageous bluff. You will be able to draw some confidence from the fact that you have a hand which could win and this might be sensed and misread by other players as the flush. Also, if you are called, it is not entirely clear whether you have made a bluff and your competitors might be left confused by the type of player you are.
 
This articles is continued at First Poker Tips on the poker tips blog at Learning To Play Poker - Bluffing