Straight Poker Bluffing
In straight poker you need to take the variance out of the game and develop a good bluffing skill or else the game is going to be a crap shoot. When you apply good bluffing skills you can begin to take down the pot without having the best hand and not even showing down a bad hand. You will still be called quite a few times, but you are not just bluffing with totally horrible hands either.
1. Have a Hand – You should always have at least a high pair when you make a bluff in straight poker. You never know when you are going to get called so you might as well have something to work with. There are a lot of players who when they begin to call someone down because they think they are bluffing that will do so with a high card or a low pair. Make sure you have at least a decent pair in your hand when you bluff so you can catch these opponents.
2. Find the Rocks – When you see that there are players who are playing really tight like a rock you need to take advantage of this and begin to bluff them more liberally. Since these players will naturally fold more often to aggression you can be even more aggressive and steal from them regularly. It is important that you take advantage of these players because you will see some opposition once players begin to catch on. When you have a calling station left to act behind you make sure you aren’t bluffing as much.
3. Table Image – When you have a loose table image players are more likely to call you when you bet. They begin to think that you are trying to bully them and they don’t like it. When you have a tight table image players are more likely to believe your bets. This is the perfect time to start stealing and bluffing the pot. When you have a tight table image begin to slowly open up your range a bit more. You will be playing a significantly larger range of hands and players won’t notice until you have already stolen quite a bit of cash from them and have laid off already.
4. Be Over Aggressive – When you are bluffing you need to make sure that you are being over aggressive. Aggression is the biggest factor to bluffing. The only chance you really have to win with a bluff is to get them to fold by betting. Being aggressive does just this. When you are aggressive you are representing that you have a strong hand. Players begin to then question the strength of their own hands and you can get them to fold. When you are starting to experience opposition just let your bluff go.
5. Let it Go – When you start to bluff someone and they are not giving the pot up you need to make sure that you let the pot go. Don’t get more money tied up in a pot that you are not going to win at showdown when your opponent won’t let you bluff them off of it. The sooner you can realize this when you are making a bluff the better because you will save more money. The less money you lose from bad bluffs means the more money you win overall. Don’t get carried away with bluffing.
