There are some big differences between bluffing on the Internet and bluffing in a live game. That much you probably expected. As a general rule, players tend to bluff a little more on the Internet than they do in a live game. The virtual environment of an online poker room makes a lot of players behave more deceptively then they would against a live opponent. Also, it’s easier to commit your chips when you’re playing online, since all you have to do is click your mouse. Compare this to a live game, in which you have to physically move your chips to the center of the table while your opponents are watching you. The end result of this big difference between online bluffing and real-life bluffing is that, online, you’ll have to spend more time keeping your opponents honest.

Looking at it from your opponents’ point of view, however, shows that you should also be careful YOURSELF when bluffing. Your opponents are more likely to call your bluffs online than they would in a live game, since they know damn well how the Internet works! It’s better to choose your bluffs more carefully.

One last thing about bluffing: bluffing can be very valuable under the right circumstances. When you bluff quite often, your opponents are likely to call quite often. You can use this to your advantage when you have a strong hand. Of course, this is one of the oldest poker tricks, and your opponents could very well be doing the exact same thing to you. Also, your opponents online might not be paying as much attention to your moves as your friends do at home, so the whole strategy might not work like it does in live games. Nevertheless, it’s something to save for the right time and place, and hopefully it’ll pay off for you.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time,” said the first President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Maybe the president liked to play poker!

The reason we’re reminding you of Lincoln’s famous quote is because in Lesson 4, we’re going to continue looking at one of the things that makes poker such a unique game: the great art of bluffing. We touched on bluffing briefly in our previous lesson but now we’re ready to step it up a bit with some “do’s” and “don’ts” for the poker beginner.

Bluffing is so common in poker that many players consider it more important than the actual deal! Just look at some of the legends who have famously won with hands that look more like feet, and you’ll see how important bluffing is! But first, some guidelines for you to keep in mind:

Do’s

DO bluff when the pot is big. You don’t need as big a chance of winning as when the pot is smaller.

DO bluff against good players. They will appreciate the opportunity to joust whereas bad players will simply call you, since it’s in their mentality to be impatient. They just want to see the next card.

DO bluff when an opponent is not bluffing. This happens when the pot is huge and the other player knows it will only take one card to beat him. He’s unlikely to be bluffing if he was the first to bet in a game with five or more players and expects to be called.

Don’ts

DON’T bluff when there is only one opponent and a small pot. If you check and he bets, there is a greater average chance that he himself is bluffing.

DON’T bluff when you’ve recently been caught bluffing. You’ve already been labeled as a poor bluffer, so don’t make things worse! Let your opponents forget that hand and start rebuilding a reputation as a straight player. You’ll get another chance soon.

DON’T bluff against lots of players. Chances are that someone has something that they will stick with. From an odds perspective, bluffing in this kind of situation is never worth it.

That’s all for now. Utilize the rest of our site to sweeten your game!

Poker player or not, almost everybody is familiar with the term “bluffing”—and there’s a good reason for that. Bluffing is one of the key strategies for getting ahead in a game of poker. Remember: if you only played with your best hands and were honest all the time, you’d have no action when you play!

In order to benefit from bluffing in poker, you have to know when and when not to bluff, since bluffing is a double-edged sword that can sometimes harm your game.

In general, bluffing is a simple matter of mathematics coupled with an elementary understanding of how to read tells, or the hands your opponents have. Let’s say, for example, that there is a $50 pot and you bet $5, in an effort to steal the pot when you basically have no chance of winning. That would be a 10:1 payout on your money. As a result, you would need a 10:1 chance or better of winning the pot in this situation. And if you’re unsuccessful on your 10^th crack, you’ll still need an 11^th attempt to break even. But that’s really a worst-case scenario.

The main thing to remember is that your bluffs only need to be successful a small percentage of the time in order to show a profit. As a result, they are invaluable poker tool that you can’t afford to avoid.

Good luck and keep playing!