Poker and the Subtle Art of Bluffing
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Winning at poker isn’t just about getting good cards — with up to nine players at the table, that doesn’t happen often. That’s why learning how to bluff in poker is essential. Ideally, you’d risk the minimum when bluffing, but in practice, it’s more complex. A good bluff depends on timing, table image, reading your opponents, and making your bet size believable and consistent with how you’d play your strong hands.
Bluffing in poker isn’t just pretending your weak hand is strong — it’s about telling a believable story with your bets. Whether you like it or not, bluffing is a core part of poker strategy, and if you never bluff, you’ll never reach your full potential as a player.
In this guide, we’ll cover the six key factors behind a successful bluff. You’ll also learn when to bluff, what hands to choose, and when to hold back to protect your chips.
Your Opponents
Ultimately, your opponents determine whether a bluff will be successful. If you bet and they fold, your bluff works and you win the hand. If you bet and he calls your bluff fails.
So how can you control what your opponent does? You bet your hand; they bet theirs. What can you do to affect their behavior?
There are many different types of poker players and you need to pick the right opponents to bluff against. Ideally you want to have only one opponent to bluff against. While there are times when your bluff will work against an entire lineup, most of the time you want it to be head to head. Similarly, you want to avoid bad targets for your bluff.
You don’t want to bluff a player who doesn’t think about your bet when deciding to call or fold. Avoid bluffing opponents who call too often or are too loose to fold, even when they suspect they’re beat. If someone ignores betting logic, no bluff will work — they’ll call no matter what. As the saying goes, it’s easier to bluff a good player than a bad one.
Along those lines, the recent history of your opponent needs to be taken into consideration as well. Some players get hammered so badly in a session that they tilt and become fatalistic. They’ll give away the rest of their stack with any kind of draw. They don’t make good targets of your bluff – even if normally they’re a good player.
Conversely, if a player just won a big pot, is about to leave, or is close to even, they’re likely focused on protecting their stack — making them an ideal target for a bluff, even if they’re not usually cautious.
Your Image
Your table image plays a large part in whether your bluff will be successful. You need to be aware of what it is in order to exploit it. If you’re seen as a tight player your bets will more likely be believed as representing strength. Your bluffs will be more likely to succeed. On the other hand, if you’re perceived as a wildman – who throws their chips around like a drunken sailor (or even better – if you are perceived as a drunken sailor) – your bluffs will almost surely fail – since you’re likely to be called. Take your image to others into consideration and make your bluffs accordingly.
Betting History of the Hand
Bets are not viewed in a vacuum. They are part of a narrative. Your bet, to succeed against perceptive opponents, needs to fit into that narrative to be believed. Your good opponent is not likely to believe that your bet on the river means you hit your flush if your betting up until that point didn’t indicate that you were on a flush draw.
Conversely, here’s an example of your bluff following a believable “I made the flush on the river” narrative. In a relatively tight $2-5 game, your early position opponent with a deep stack raised pre-flop to $20. You, also with a deep stack, called with 
. The flop came 
. Your opponent bet $35 and you called. The turn was the 
– making the board . Your opponent bet $50 and you called. The river was the 
. Your opponent checked. You bet $100. That story is the story of a flush draw turning into a flush when the river card hits. Your pre-river action made it look like you actually hit a flush on the river.
Strength of Your Hand
Pure bluffs – when a hand has absolutely no chance of success unless your opponent folds – are less likely to win you money then bluffs that are combined with hands with the possibility of improving as the hand develops. These are generally known as “semi-bluffs”. I think of them as bluffs with a back up plan – a way to win even if they don’t win outright as a bluff.
Here’s an example of a semi-bluff. It’s the flop. You have 
. The flop is 
. You bet. On the one hand you have nothing. If your opponent folds you win. It would be a successful bluff if that happened. But even if they call, you have a chance of getting a ten or a heart on the turn or river and winning that way.
As you can see, a bluff with a backup plan, known as a semi-bluff, is better than just a pure bluff. So take that into consideration when pondering whether or not to bluff.
Your Position
The position you are in relative to the remaining player or players in the hand is an important consideration. Generally, you want to see how your opponent reacts to the board before you decide to bluff – making late position more advantageous than early position when bluffing. If they check you can often presume them to be weak and bet. If you have to bet or check first, you won’t have the advantage of seeing their reaction to the board.
In poker, however, few things are always true. Sometimes, it may be better to bluff from early position. If, for example, you are against a rather sophisticated opponent, who understands that bluffing is generally more likely from late position, you may be more likely to fool them into folding a superior hand by betting in early position.
Bet Size
In no limit it’s important to think about the size of your bet when you are bluffing. Ideally, you will bet the least amount necessary to get your opponent to fold. But what is that amount?
It may seem that the more you bet the more likely your opponent will be to fold. As a practical matter this is rarely true, however. It’s better to think in terms of thresholds beyond which opponents will not call. And you want to get as close to the threshold as you can.
Consider this common scenario: the pot stands at $100, the flop has completely missed your hand, and your opponent checks—a possible sign of weakness. In such situations, a well-timed bluff can often take down the pot. As a general rule, a continuation bet of 50% of the pot—$50 in this case—is typically enough to force a fold if your opponent has neither connected with the board nor picked up a draw.
However, poker is situational. If you suspect your opponent may be chasing a draw, increasing your bet to the full pot size might be necessary to apply real pressure. On the flip side, if you’re up against a particularly tight player, even a smaller wager—perhaps just $25—might be sufficient to trigger a fold. But beware of the “calling station” archetype: some players refuse to fold, regardless of bet size. Against such opponents, bluffing becomes a losing proposition, no matter how aggressive your line.
Here’s another example. It’s the river. The pot is $300. You’ve read your opponent for a flush draw. The river is not suited so no flush is possible. Your opponent checks. If you’ve read your opponent correctly, there’s no way they will call a bet of any size. On the other hand, you have nothing so you can’t risk checking it down. You can safely bet as little as 25% of the pot and expect a fold. Why risk more, in case they have deceived you with a monster? If they come over the top you can lay down your bluff without having lost more than $75 on the bluff.
Conclusion
There’s a time and place to succeed with bluffing, which is a complicated matter. Yet novice players often fall into the trap of bluffing far too much. It’s important that you consider all the factors in this lesson to before you attempt to pull off a bluff.
If you’re new to poker and are just starting out then it’s best to avoid the temptation to bluff. By studying the lessons here on Pokerology you’ll learn much more about the concept of bluffing, along with many other successfully poker strategies. When you combine this knowledge with valuable playing experience, the art of bluffing will become second nature.