Full Tilt Poker – Setting up the Power Bluff
Setting Up & Executing a Power Bluff
Most beginner poker players have no clue how to bluff a hand and they don’t realize when they should bluff. They typically think that a bluff is like a gamble. In order to execute a bluff you need to be in a position to bluff and it needs to make sense. Some hands don’t make any sense at all to bluff and you need to avoid bluffing in situations that don’t make sense. We’re going to look at some of the factors you need to look at in order to make a good bluff.
The idea of behind bluffing is to make your opponent believe that you have a better hand than them, and to do this you need to represent a good hand when you’re betting. For instance say you raised the hand with a 7-6 off-suit and someone called your raise. The flop came and it was an A-J-5 with two hearts and a club. Now since you raised the pot initially you should make a continuation bet and play the ace. If your opponent doesn’t have an ace then there most likely going to fold this hand because the ace came and with the continuation bet they’ll think you hit your ace.
Another example of a good time to bluff is when you are playing on CarbonPoker and you flat call a bet on the flop with flush or straight possibilities. If the flush or straight hits the board then you can come out and make a solid bet or raise on your opponent and make it seem like you hit your straight or flush. If they believe you then they’ll most likely fold and if they don’t then you might be in trouble and need to get out of the hand.
There are plenty of times you can bluff the pot all you need to do is make sure that you make your opponent believe you’re holding a strong hand. There will be times when you set-up a bluff perfectly, but it still might backfire on your due to your opponent holding a real hand. This happens and it’s why bluffing isn’t always 100% safe to do, but most of the time bluffing will work if you do it scarcely. You can’t bluff too much though or else you face the troubles of running into people not believing you. A lot of the power of a bluff is in how often you bluff, if you’re known as someone who often bluffs then your bluffs will work a lot less and people will call them more often.
Always make sure that you set-up your bluffs early in the hand at Full Tilt Poker. If you’re going to be bluffing then you need to decide what hand you’ll be betting. If you’re going to bet an ace on the flop then you should raise early and strongly to represent an ace. If you’re going to bluff that you have a flush or straight then wait for it to come on the board and start raising the pot then. The more obvious your bet seems the better because you want to make it look like you’re representing the best hand. People will figure you’re just betting the nuts and fold to you assuming you don’t know what you’re doing, but in reality you’ve just bluffed the table and taken down a pot.