Key Thoughts Before Bluffing at
Online Poker Tables
written by BeatTheFish.com
...Fishy says, "Bluffing simply isn't as
effective online. For having a brain about the size of a pinhead, I
sure know my poker."
Bluffing has been around as long as
poker itself. If everyone always bet when they had a strong hand and
folded when they had a weak hand there wouldn’t be much of a game to
master. Of course, bluffing is essential to poker and to your
personal strategy in order to keep your opponents from getting an
absolute read on your playing style. However, poker has become a
different beast in the past few years with the advent of online
games and poker on TV.
Unfortunately, players new to the game and coming from the tube
often get a skewed sense of the importance and successfulness of
bluffing… especially online. The simple fact is that bluffing is
much less successful in wild online games and should play less of a
role in your strategy – if at all. In this article we hope to teach
you the right situations to bluff and when to hold back.
First of all, you should realize that bluffing is less effective
over the internet. You are a nameless, faceless icon at the table
and you can’t employ the same tells that you can at a real table.
You can’t put on a poker face or stare your opponent down. Your
opponent simply sees your bet. Not only should you realize that
online players are looser and will call with more hands, but you
should understand that you can’t intimidate online opponents like
you can at a cardroom. If you’re looking to get by just on nerve
online, it won’t work. Many players will call you down with bottom
pair, and that beats your stone bluff every time.
Secondly, consider the situation of the hand before you bluff. You
are much less likely to succeed when there are more than two players
in the hand with you. It is simply much more likely that at least
one of them holds a hold worthy of calling you. If you’re going to
bluff, do it heads-up or against 2 other players maximum.
Another silly move that I see a lot of online players make is the
very weak mini-bluff. These players seem like they want to make a
bluff at the pot, but in a no-limit cash game they’ll raise or bet
the minimum into 4 players in a futile attempt to take the pot. If
you’re going to bluff, “Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job,” as my
poker veteran buddy always says. You don’t want to make an
unnaturally large bet since that will reek of weakness, but bet at
least 4x the big blind preflop and raise at least the size of the
pot after the flop. If you aren’t prepared to make a good bluff,
you’re better off not making one at all.
Other points to consider are the structure game you’re playing.
Bluffing is much less effective in a fixed-limit cash game because
you can only ever double the bet. If your opponent has a hand he’s
going to put in that extra bet. If you bluff at a limit table,
you’re probably going to have to bet and raise over two betting
rounds to make a point. Most of my bluffing takes place during
tournaments. It will come up most often when you’re shortstacked and
the blinds are creeping up. Also, you might bluff weak opponents out
of their blinds. You might have to bluff at some point in a
tournament because you can’t walk away – you either have to gain
chips or go broke at some point. In a cash game, you can afford to
bluff less because you can stay as long as you like. You aren’t in
any rush to pick up pots and you can play patient in your own style.
The blinds are fixed and you should be in the game to make a long
term profit.
Also, don’t bluff blindly. That is, don’t bluff if you don’t have a
clue what your opponent’s playing style is. If you’re bluffing
outright maniacs, they might come over the top of you and put you in
a very bad spot with a decision that you’d rather not have to make.
You also don’t want to bluff calling stations who will stay in with
weak hands. Those weak hands are often better than your bluffing
hands and may connect or have already connected. If you’re playing
multiple tables and having been observing your opponents much, don’t
try a sophisticated bluff until you have more information.
You’ll see bluffs succeed a lot on television because executive
producers like to put exciting hands into the limited airtime to
improve ratings. The fact is that it is much less successful at
loose (or observant) online tables, where fishy opponents will often
call you down with anything. Those “anythings” will probably beat
your bluffs. Poker players should develop a strict set of starting
hands and learn how to win with their cards before they try to win
on nerve. If you find yourself bluffing and losing, try putting a
sticky on the corner of your monitor during playing sessions that
simply reminds you: “Don’t bluff.” It might sound simplistic, but if
you keep an eye on that note and only play when you have a hand, at
least for one session, you might find a leak in your game that you
can easily plug.
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