Inducing a bluff

In Texas Hold’em poker inducing a bluff means to manipulate your opponents into betting a hand that originally he had not intention of betting. Basically you check your almost sure winning hand with the idea to induce one of your opponents after you to bluff, and then calling or raising to get a bigger pot. The skill to induce a bluff is not that easy to acquire and is a characteristic of an expert player. It is a tactic similar but at the same time different from slow-play. The slow-play usually takes advantage of a good hand of your opponent to defeat him with an even stronger hand played passively since the beginning.

The induced bluff is used mainly on the river or in heads-up situations, but it can be profitable also in other phases of the game … the flop, the turn or in multi-way pots having several active players. The main advantageous points to consider for adopting this technique are the following:
particularly impatient or aggressive or ’tilting’ players, your position worse than that of the potential bluffer … and a big pot of course. None bluffs or should bluff for a few cents. The induced bet should be used when we think that we have the best hand on the river and our value bet would have just a few possibilities to see a call.

Let’s consider for example a limit game where your hole cards are KK or AA, you raise in last position before the flop and one of your opponent calls. The flop is dealt, you bet and your opponent calls you again. On the turn the right thing to do at this point is often to check. On one side it may save you money if your opponent composed a really strong hand, on the other it may induce your opponent to bluff on the river, giving you one more bet as a gift.

Playing poker online at one of the top poker rooms is a good way to improve this skill!

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Getting the Best Out of Your Odds

Nowadays the game of poker reaches a widespread and diverse audience. Online poker and poker tournaments are enormously popular. Learning how to play the game in poker school is also the rage. And virtually everyone who plays poker discusses beating the odds. New poker players, in particular, are apt to get hung up on the concept of luck versus skill and the game’s hidden secrets.

If you want to learn poker—how the game is played in all its nuances—focus on acquiring and maximizing your skills. The more you know about the game, the less you will need to rely on luck. Yes, there will always be an element of luck in poker, but it doesn’t define the game. It really all boils down to the old saying: You make your own luck. And making your own luck takes a healthy measure of skill in poker playing!

Foremost, play your good hands in poker and be done with the bad ones. Unless you have a very solid hand and a reasonable shot at winning, scrupulously avoid getting drawn into showdowns with very assertive opponents.

It’s critical that you don’t needlessly risk your chips on losing hands. Some inexperienced players feel they can bluff their opponents into folding good hands. This brand of poker interplay may occasionally succeed, but it’s more often than not a recipe for losing and losing big.

To absolutely maximize the poker odds, scrutinize your opponents’ styles of play. Never play your game in one set mode. Play your cards in response to your competition: Who are they and how do they play? By utilizing this studied approach, you become a player that your opponents cannot read and boost your poker odds. The less the competition knows what’s in your head, the less you’ll need to rely on lady luck to see you through to a winning pot.

In the big picture, steer clear of ill advised drawing circumstances and, too, betting the ranch—with everything in the pot—unless you categorically feel that you have a realistically good chance of winning the hand.

And whether you are participating in a poker tournament or playing online poker, craft strategies. Never allow emotions to get in your way and govern your decision-making. Let others play their games while you play yours—smartly and calmly. This is the truest route to beating the poker odds.

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The Bluff

One of the most sophisticated forms of illusion in poker is for sure the bluff, that is making your opponents believe that your cards are different from what they really are.

The bluff is probably one of the most popular strategy-moves in poker. Every rookie knows that you’re supposed to bluff your opponents, and that making someone fold the better hand is the ultimate victory at the green felt. This is exactly why you’ll find beginners bluffing left and right and being caught red-handed time and time again by the good players. Yes, the bluff is definitely a move that should be part of your poker weapons arsenal, but you should know this about it: the bluff can be a very efficient weapon, but it is extremely volatile, and if you don’t know how to handle it, it will blow up in your face. First of all, you need to know some basics facts about the bluff: there are two types of it, the pure bluff and the semi-bluff. The pure bluff is done on rags basically (you don’t have a hand and you do not even stand a realistic chance to hit a good hand). The pure bluff only offers you one possibility to win the pot: by making your opponent fold. The semi-bluff is a different breed, because unlike the pure bluff, it offers you two ways to win the pot: by making your opponent fold or by hitting your hand. Obviously, semi-bluffs are not made on rags. You need a nice drawing hand to fire out a semi bluff. Semi bluffs are extremely frequent in poker, and the 4-card flush on the flop is the most common example. Every preflop raise however is also a semi-bluff, and you may have semi-bluffed already without knowing that you were actually doing that.

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Bluff according to your opponents

You can use all the advices given so far, but not against all of your opponents. As you study the game, you will learn how to determine the style of your opponents and to adjust to their own game. If a player is afraid of big bets of the opponents, use them as semi-bluff. The three-level semi-bluff works well against a thinking opponent, because with each of your bets, the value of your hand in his eyes will only grow. However, there is a group of players against whom such deep bluffs just do not work. These are people who find it extremely difficult to lose a hand, after they put some money into the pot. They are usually called “emotional” players, because they have very strong almost family bonds with the pot and to break them is virtually impossible.

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Poker Bluffing – Ten Winning Tips

Author: Stephen Todd

Bluffing is the art of making other players believe you have a better hand than you really have. If used correctly bluffing can help you enhance your profits from poker and win big. Here are ten tips to help you bluff successfully.

Tip 1: Bluff when “someone” might have made a good hand. An example is when the third of a suit hits the board. “Someone” might have a flush. If you bet as if you have the flush, the other players may believe you.

Tip 2: Bluff if you are in a pot with a player that is looking for a reason to fold. By betting, big and making them think you have something they can’t match; you can remove them from the game.

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