Basics of bluff in poker: how to learn to bluff

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Bluff – an attempt to win a hand with a weak hand without opening, by raising bet with the desire to force the opponent to fold cards in fold. 

Without using this technique in poker, it is impossible to get a good winrate for two reasons:

1. You will not collect suitable combinations for showdown often enough.
2. You will not receive enough payment for nuts and vellya of the combination due to the thread value. The game only on the velha is very noticeable at the table, even without the use of statistics collection programs.

The reverse side of the coin is also fair — by committing various deceptive actions, you improve the payment of your strong hits and premium hands, as opponents trust you less and will try to reveal your deception. Therefore, you need to learn how to bluff correctly in poker at the very beginning of your career. Bluff is the most difficult part of the poker game, in which novice players make a large number of mistakes. While you are learning to play poker and playing low limits, make only those bluff that are strategically calibrated and explained to you in the articles and videos of our site. Avoid emotional situational bluff, they will often end badly for you.  

1. bluff on preflop

Already starting from preflop, we expand our range towards middle and even weak hands, depending on the position. In both open raises and 3-betas, we have a bluff part of the range. The goal is to create an image of a puddle player so that our premium hands pay better. But we choose not everything for the open-raise with medium hands, but strictly defined hands, because playability on the post-flop is very important to us. You can find out the optimal hands for opening on preflop from our free course "Basics of preflop and postflop games". To get up-to-date preflop charts for microlimits, it is enough to register one partner room through our website.

How to find out your fold equity

We tell you from what sources you can estimate the probability of an opponent's fold:

General indicators of the intuitive game of the field
On average, there are so-called indicators of the “field”, that is, the middle game of opponents on a particular board. It consists of intuitive independent understandings of novice poker players and well-known widespread information in the poker ecosystem.

Game style 
It is necessary to focus on the general style of the opponent's game. Since there are several types of opponents and their game features. If it is an “answering machine” (calling-station), which calls even on the fourth pair — bet as a bluff will not be justified.

Notes
Make notes on opponents or note the features of their game. Some are ready to call widely even with weak hands, while others play very silly and you can  play more boldly against them. 

Statistics
You can slightly adjust your knowledge in this matter with the help of game statistics, which are collected by special programs – trackers.

Expansion of the open raise

A good poker player is always focused on opening as many hands as possible, which can be opened as a plus at all. Attacking is always easier than defending, be it football, basketball, chess or any other sport. And poker, of course, is no exception. We have the right to assume that 90% of the field will not be able to defend optimally or adjust to us at microlimits. This means that an aggressive game will bring auto profit at a the long run. 

In the late stages of the tournament, when the participants are pressured by the possibility of getting to the final table, the field begins to play too carefully. Therefore, we have the right to further expand our raises (but not getting involved in large banks with medium and weak hands) and exert even more pressure on opponents, increasing our winrate. In the case of an opponent's cold call in response to our raise, we go to the post-flop with the initiative, where, continuing the aggressive line, we will often pick up pots with 1-2 bets. As a rule, our specific hand does not matter much. Almost any board against one opponent is profitable to play two barrels in a bluff as a bluff. 

Bluff 3-bet

A very powerful weapon on the preflop, with the help of which we achieve three goals at once:

1. We expand our range by masking premium hands.
2. We knock out part of the range of the opponent who has more equity against our hand.
3. We go post-flop with the initiative to continue our bluff.

Use bluff 3-bet predominantly from late positions to minimize the likelihood of 4-bet pushes from subsequent players.

Bluff Squeeze

Squeeze is a bet raise in response to the opening of one opponent and the cold call of one or more other participants in the distribution. This action is overestimated by many. Bluffing with a squeeze is only worth it if the raiser is in HJ and later positions, and the caller is behind it. If the positions are earlier, you should use Squeeze only in rare cases and use only playable hands like suited aces for this. 

Bluff 4-beta

This is an effective weapon against players who have learned a lot of 3 bet bluffing as a bluff from late positions. In addition to a simple bluff 4-beta, there are bluff 4-bet-pushes (that is, a situation where the player reveals 4-beta simultaneously goes to all-in); the game range and stacks for these actions will differ. Do not use non-ovine 4-beta bluff in effective stacks less than 35 BB, as well as against racers from early positions and against the big blind, unless there are serious reasons for this. In contrast, olyne bluff 4-beta in stacks > 35bb is completely useless. At limits up to $11, there is no big need to be able to bluff 4-bet. These limits can be dispensed with without such dispersive aggression. Olyne bluff 4-bet is not relevant at all at limits up to $33 due to the more tacit average 3bet at the field.  

Styles & Restyling

A poker style is an attempt to steal blinds from late positions — CO, BU, SB. Resteal is a reverse attempt to steal the chips of a person who is trying to steal blinds. Both techniques are associated with a significant expansion of ranges towards bluff. Carefully choose situations for styles and restyles: a suitable hand, opponents and effective stacks in the hand. We remind you about getting LEVEL 1 OF the game ranges for microlimits.  

2. Types of bluff in post-flop poker

Using a post-flop bluff, we achieve two goals:

1. We earn chips with the help of fold equity.
2. We create an aggressive image and get the best payment for the value of hands.

What factors affect the assessment of fold equity 

Fold equity is a rather subjective factor. 

The accuracy of the calculation can be improved if you understand what affects the final value:

The size of the bet
The larger the sizing, the more likely the villain is to send his hand to the fold. Imagine that you have 1 big blind and 10 BB on the river. Which bet are you more likely to call even if you don't have a strong hand? 

Hand range
The stronger your range looks in the eyes of your opponent, the more FE will be, since it will be more difficult for him to play on weak and middle hands against you. 

Stack sizes
If you bluff in the tournament chipleader, the total fold equity for such situations will be reduced, it is easier for him to respond to the bet. On the other hand, if the opponent's stack is small (and even more so if he risks flying out of MTT at a late stage), he plays as neatly as possible and fold equity increases.

The structure of the board
suited Coordinated board is least suitable for a bet in a bluff, since the fold equity of the opponent will be minimal. The largest fold equity will be on dry (offsuited) boards with one higher card (A, K or Q). 

By default, the position
against an opponent without a fold equity position is larger, since it is more difficult to resist in such a position from the point of view of strategy.

Dynamic
It is important to monitor the game and how the opponent behaved in previous hands. Presumably, the villain is in a certain mood or state at the moment, based on previous hands. And this can affect his decisions. 

Pure bluff in poker

If we are a preflop aggressor, then the main bluff for postflop is cbet (continued bet) and barreling on further streets. Intuitively, it is rarely clear to anyone in which situations we can make cbet on the flop and turn, and in which not, and what size to make bet. To understand this, you can watch as many debriefs of tournaments as possible from our head coach Exan13, or even better get access to the course "The Fine Art of bluff". It can be purchased or received free of charge through our loyalty program. 

In this course, you will also learn about other types of post-flop bluff:

All of these actions make a profit, even on completely empty hands. But you need to follow strict rules and know well in which situations they need to be done and in which they do not.

These are situations when we do not have a ready-made hand, but there is a decent equity — the potential for strengthening to strong combinations.

• straight draw;
• flush draw.

Bluffing with such hands, we achieve two goals at once:

1. We earn by creating fold equity.
2. We earn when we get ready-made combinations on the turn or river.

Bluff with equity 

Numerous situations when we make a bluff of the action, but not on an absolutely empty hand, but with a small opportunity to still get to the best combination in the hand. Such bluff, of course, is preferable to completely empty. 

3. How to learn to bluff

The art of bluff originates in the understanding of the mathematics of bluff, the profitability factors of bluff (part 1, part 2) and the principle of narrowing ranges. After studying these materials, introducing them into your game and spending a few evenings debriefing in Flopzilla, you will be able to understand a little bit the mechanics of this action. See also numerous reviews of tournaments on our website to see as many examples as possible with detailed explanations. This is a review article about the basics of bluff in poker so that beginners get a general idea of this area of poker theory. The most structured information about post-flop bluff can be found in the relevant video courses on the website.