How to Bluff in No-Limit Hold’em

We all know that bluffing is an essential part of poker. If the strength of everyone’s bets was always correlated to the strength of everyone’s hands there wouldn’t be much mystery to the game.

Bluffing in no-limit hold’em, especially in cash games, is a much more powerful weapon than in limit games.

Don’t make bluffing a guessing game

Unfortunately, many beginners and intermediate players view bluffing as more of a guessing game than a well-timed and calculated execution.

When you bluff it should make sense and you should be making each move for a specific reason. If you simply bluff on a whim you’ll have a much lower success rate than if you plan your actions and take advantage of proper timing.

My 5 best rules to follow before you bluff next

The following rules should be thought about, even if only briefly, before you execute your next bluff in a no-limit cash game.

If you find yourself thinking critically about every action and incorporating some of the following thought processes into your game, I assure you that you’ll make more money and become more confident about your game.

So, next time before you bluff:

1. Know thy opponent you’re pulling off a bluff on

Usually when you make a big bluff, it’s going to be up against a single opponent as you’re much more likely to be called and/or raised with more than one opponent. Your read on your opponent is crucial to pulling off a successful bluff.

If you’ve seen him call to the showdown with middle pair or worse, you shouldn’t be bluffing him. If he’s a maniac who loves to raise you shouldn’t even try it.

The best opponents to bluff are tight-weak players and tight-aggressive players. These are the types of players who can lay down a strong hand that isn’t the nuts.

2. Consider your opponent’s previous betting patterns

The best way to read your opponent, especially online where physical tells are non-existent, is through betting patterns. When you’re looking to steal the pot on the flop, turn, or river, see if your opponent’s bets indicate weakness.

Examples would include making a tiny bet in relation to the pot, leading out on the flop and checking on the turn, or making a weak call.

If you’re paying attention, these can often be dead giveaways to the strength of your opponent’s hand. Take advantage of that information!

3. Is the board scary for your opponent?

Instead of giving up on a missed hand or bluffing on based on the read of your opponent, check the board. If your opponent is likely to have top pair, two pair, or even a set, did the board put 3 hearts or 4 straight cards out there?

If you’ve been meekly calling to set up a bluff later or hoped to improve your hand but didn’t, the best thing that can happen would be for a scare card to hit the board in the form of an overcard, a completed flush, or a completed straight.

Your opponent will be aware of the board because he’s likely been afraid that you’re drawing to a better hand. If a scare card does fall and your opponent acts weak by checking or making a small bet, you might try to make him believe that you just completed a draw with a big bet/raise.

He will have a tough time calling if he didn’t complete the draw himself.

4. Does your play fit the bluff?

Following the logic of the previous tip, given the sequence of betting you need to convince your opponent that you have a better hand than he does. For example, let’s say the board is K-8-2 with two spades and your opponent has A-K. You’re holding the J-10 of spades and you call his pot-sized bet on the flop.

When a 4 of hearts comes on the turn your opponent can probably safely assume that it didn’t help your hand.

However, if it was an 8 of hearts, your opponent may give you credit for an 8 since you just made a weak call on the flop. If you plan to bluff, think about how the hand has played out and if your play would make sense for the hand you’re trying to represent.

5. Finally, bet like you mean it if you’re going to bluff at all

Once you’ve decided to throw caution to the wind, trust your read, and make a huge bluff don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.

When you bluff in no-limit hold’em, you’re going to have to be comfortable with throwing in a lot of chips. If you aren’t, you probably won’t be successful and you’re better off just folding.

No one is going to fold to a minimum re-raise if they have any sort of a hand. The goal of bluffing is to convince your opponent that you have a better hand and get him to lay it down. You’ll have to scare him by making at least a pot-sized raise, if not more.

Learn to think critically before you bluff next

The next time you’re considering making a bluff in a no-limit hold’em tournament or cash game, think critically before you do. Realize what you’re trying to accomplish and go over these tips in your head before you push in all those chips.

Set your opponent up by reading his play, taking advantage of the scare card, and making a sizable bet when you sense weakness.

The end result should be picking up some extra chips more often for when you really do want to get paid off!

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, with the advent of online games and poker on TV, poker has become a different beast over the years

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 I want to teach you the fundamental right situations to bluff and when to hold back.

Bluffing and image at online tables

First of all, you should realize that bluffing is less effective on 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.

Bluffing weak or into multiple opponents

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 hand worthy of calling you.

If you’re going to bluff, do it heads-up or against 2 other players maximum.

The weak mini-bluff

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.

Bluffing in different game structures

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.

Does your bluff make sense?

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 haven’t been observing your opponents much, don’t try a sophisticated bluff until you have more information.

Learn to play solid first, bluffing comes later

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.

Key Takeaways