As you all know, Juicy Stakes is a top online poker room. We feature Texas Holdem and Omaha. We also have many different stakes levels so players at all skill and bankroll levels can find a suitable game every day. One thing in poker that transcends where we play, be it online on land or at home with friends, is that poker is a bluffing game.
There will be a bluff of sorts in almost every hand. The trick is to discern when an opponent is bluffing and, in our own cases, to bluff effectively.
There are Tendencies in Bluffing
A tendency means that there is no sure-fire way to bluff effectively or to figure out that an opponent is trying to bluff you. But there are tendencies. One of the most common bluffing bets is to bet too quickly.
Here we have two diametrically opposite phenomena. A poor player might bet quickly because he or she has a super powerful hand. The other side of this coin is the player who bets too fast as a bluff.
How can you know the difference between these two overly fast bets? The main way to decide if the bet is a bluff or the sign of a great hand is to know your opponents. This takes time but it is possible to “read” an opponent and make a reasoned appraisal of their specific behavior in this specific hand.
Rule #1: For Best Bluffing...Be Unreadable
We have just said that a seasoned player might be able to read an opponent after observing her or his behavior in hands. So, in order to be able to bluff effectively, you have to become unreadable. Then your opponents will not be sure if you are bluffing or not.
In our first example of bluffing that is easy to see, we had a player bet too fast. So, if you want to bluff, you should bet at the same speed you use when you are simply staying in a hand but not bluffing.
Becoming unreadable is a major part of becoming a very good or better poker player. This is a learned skill. It requires a lot of practice. If you look at shorts on YouTube, you can see many instances where someone reacts in a crazy manner to a surprise.
To be really good at poker, you have to learn how to not telegraph surprise. There will be a lot of surprises in poker if you play long enough. Learning how to bluff requires not letting on that you have a hand that you can bluff with.
Rule #2: A Good Player Thinks about Their Hand
This gets back to the player who bets too fast. A player with a good hand after the flop will thin about it. For example, if you flop a set that you think is the best hand so far, you should think about how much you can bet to extract value from opponents.
If you do think when you have a good hand, the very act of thinking can be a bluffing technique when you have a marginal hand.
Rule #3: Learn How to Calculate a “Proper” Bet
This is a corollary to the previous rules. A player who bets too fast also very often makes an excessively large bet. This is a bluff from a poor player most of the time. A poor player will think that a large bet will cause the other players to fold. But an excessively large bet, based on what that player might have, is a sure sign of a bluff.
Poker pros can figure out just how much to bet to get the opponent to call and lose to a good hand or cause the other player to fold thinking that the bettor has a better hand. As we have said, making the right sized bet is a learned skill that takes time to learn.
Rule #4: Respect the “Privacy” of Online Poker
This means that it takes a lot longer to become a good player when you play online at Juicy Stakes or at any other reputable online poker room. Playing poker on land offers up a lot of visual tells. One of these tells is the over-emotional player. An over-emotional player might throw good money after bad especially if they are having a run of bad luck.
You can’t bluff a player who is in this state but you can avoid giving them money. If you know for sure that you have the better hand, you can also execute a reverse bluff by which we mean making a bet that they simply can’t say no to. Thus, you increase the size of the pot.
The best way to find out if an opponent is too emotional is to engage them in the chat area. You can start out very simply with hello, how are you, where are you from?
Never talk about their own hand, whether they won it or lost it. Talk about a different player’s hand. You might say that you thought that he or she was bluffing and that you were surprised when they won.
This kind of conversation will get a player involved. Then, when someone experiences a bad beat, you can say how much you hate it when you get beat in this way. Always probe gently. This approach will give you insights into their playing personality as well as fodder for your great American novel.
A famous novelist once said that you first work out the plot and the basic details of the characters and then you put in everything you know about people. Playing poker is a great way to learn a lot about people.
Rule #5: Never Go Outside the Basic Modalities of Poker
We mean several things here. One: if a player raises in early position, they either have a great hand like pocket aces or they are bluffing. A regular player will call in early position with suited and connected cards. They are still a long way away from having a hand so they will call to see the flop. But a raise in early position can only mean one of two things.
Two: if a player checks and calls even in late position and suddenly makes a big bet, they are probably bluffing. They likely did not hit the flop and are hoping to steal the blinds.
Three: if you have a player on a flush or straight draw and it looks like they might have hit the hand, this is the time for you to fold since they aren’t bluffing here. But if it looks like they didn’t hit the hand, then they are certainly bluffing.
Four: Play as if the bettor has a hand early on in the game as you get to know the other players. Once you have fashioned an opinion on a player, you can evaluate a bet to determine if you think he or she is bluffing or not. Knowing the other players is a primary consideration when you decide if they are bluffing or not.
Juicy Stakes Poker is a Great Online Poker Room
We have thousands of regular players who come to Juicy Stakes to play poker. We feature mainly Texas Holdem and Omaha. We have found that players who love Omaha really love it. The hi-low aspect of Omaha makes it a great game for beginners who may feel that they are not yet ready to play Holdem.
Be aware that Omaha is a very difficult game in its own right albeit quite different than Texas Holdem.
