The psychology of bluffing
The psychological aspect of online poker lies in the ability to study and draw inferences from the behavior and play of the other players, is a particular opponent a good player or a bad player? Can you deduce the strength of his hand by the giveaway signs of excitement or by the way he has played previous hands? By the same token, can you prevent him discovering from your demeanor and style of the play the same things about you? Or can you lead him to draw false conclusions about you or your hand by bluffing?
It is hard to say which of the two skills, numerical or psychological, is the more important to the complete poker player. It is true that, at the showdown, only the best hand wins. But this might not necessarily be the best hand that was held during the deal. The holder of the best hand may have been bluffed into folding before the showdown.
Bluffing is to mislead other players of the value of your hand, and can be used in two ways.
- You bet heavily to persuade opponents that you have a much better hand than you truly have so that rather than contributing chips to the pot in order to call you they fold. By this means you can win a pot with the poorest hand at the table.
- Less spectacular but more subtle and more common, you attempt to persuade opponents that your hand is less good than it actually is, so that they stay in the deal longer and contribute more poker chips, which means a bigger jackpot when you eventually, as you hope, win the showdown.
The first type of bluff works best when the limits are high and to call the bluff requires risking a large number of chips. If the limits are low, an opponent will be likely to call you and your bluff will fail. The examples overleaf show the difference the limit makes your bluff will probably fail in the first and succeed in the second.
* Jargon-bluster
Stand Pat to decline to take cards at the draw. Since only hands of the value of a straight upwards cannot be improved by a draw, a player who stand pat either has picked up a straight or better at the deal, or is bluffing.
EXAMPLE WORKING A BLUFF 1
Suppose there are six player and the ante is six chips. The limit for a bet and a raise is one chip before the draw and two chips after. In the first betting interval, you are the dealer and one player has bet one chip and another called before you.
- You call and raise one chip.
- The first opponent folds, the other calls. There are 11 chips in the pot before the draw.
- You stand pat.
- Your opponent checks and you bet two chips.
There are now 13 chips in the pot and to force a showdown your opponent needs to pay only two chips. At odds of 13 to 2, he might decide to risk his couple of chips just to make sure you aren’t bluffing. If he doesn’t, you take the 13 chips. Since you contributed five (including your one for ante actually as dealer you put in the whole ante of six), you have won eight. Not bad, considering you had a completely worthless hand. But it is more likely your opponent will call and you will lose the pot.
EXAMPLE WORKING A BLUFF 2
Suppose you are playing pot limit. Again, there are six chips in the ante.
- The same two opponents each bet one chip.
- You call for one chip, making nine in the pot and raise by nine chips.
- Both opponents will probably fold. You collect 18 chips, 11 of which you put in yourself (including one for the ante). Your profit is seven chips.
However, what happens if one of your opponents, holding, say two pairs, aces high, calls rather than folding?
He draws one card (and fails to complete a full house the odds are over 10 to 1) and you stand pat.
- he now checks.
- You bet the amount in the pot, which is now 27 chips.
- Your opponent now has to put 27 chips into the pot to call you. You have stood pat, and you are a tight player. He must assume you have a straight at least. With his two pairs is he going to put another 27 chips into the pot to see your hand? Probably not. He will fold.
- You collect a pot of 54 chips, 38 of which you contributed yourself. You make a profit of 16 chips. Of course, had your opponent called you for 27 chips, you would know the game is up. He probably has a full house.