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I've been watching some poker tournaments with Antonius, Negreanu and Cates lately. Most of the time the person with better combination actually wins, but there occur some great bluffs from time to time as well. Do you think it is better to fold if you don't have at least one high card in a pair or two cards of the same suit? Is it worth to try out overbetting tricks when you really have shitty cards? When I tried playing poker, overbetting usually made me fold, because it is a hard psychological attack for me and I am not the kind of a person that is willing to risk a lot. But I am bad at poker. What is your opinion on this matter?

Poker is a game with Bluffs and good cards to but each person needs to understand what's good for him and what's not, you may be good at playing with good combinations but equally be bad at bluffing, pokers pros can spot a fake bluff miles away and bluffing with them will only make you loose money, the art of bluffing comes with experience and should be avoided by newbies, they should trust their cards.

I love playing Zynga poker in facebook and I spend relatively a big amount of time in my office doing so , I am an IT so I am only called to duty when some problems arises, in my free time I read about new technologies and play Zynga poker.

I can say that when I play sit and go the best to do is to wait and always to play with good cards. People will get nervous with the passing of time, they will bluff when they shouldn't and they will be eliminated in no time. This will improve your chances to win the tournament. The same can be applied to any table playing Texas Holdem.

I don't usually play poker but I do know how to play and I am seeing great players play poker and get some good techniques from them how to the cards at hand. With this two options, I can't say that one of them is great than the other since these two options can be used at the same time. Since most players that is usually bluffing has a lower card at hand to pressure their opponents maybe verbally or using some facial expressions if you can play these two, the players will be confused on how you really play the cards. They will not know if you have a great card or just bluffing because you have a lower cards, It can be your great weapon.

I'm not also good in poker but this is situational. If you are starting and you still have bankroll to gamble with, it's okay to fold if your cards aren't so good.

But if you are decided and you only have few left on your bankroll, it's okay to do YOLO. I mean that you can pursue even if your card isn't so good or if you don't have choice, you have last money and your card isn't so good that's the best time to bluff.

In poker, you should have no predictable behavior. You have to establish to your opponents that you do bluffing so when you have really good cards and you raised high, your opponents will think that you're just bluffing and that you probably don't have good cards. Poker is basically just knowing how much to bet, when to bet high, when to bluff, and when to fold. You can have really shitty cards and still be able to win by bluffing and making everyone fold. Poker is really skill-based. What are you going to do with your cards, that's what it's all about. You will never always get full house combination or flush or straight cards.

If you're only going to play with good cards, you will end up always folding. So by the time you raised, they will know that you have good cards. Thus, they will fold and you will only get what's in the pot. You have to be able to confuse or trick your opponents so you can make the most from your cards.

Exactly. Bluffing too much or too little becomes predictable - then everyone around the table knows how you play and will (if they aren't newbies) react accordingly to put you at a disadvantage. Change things up to keep your opponents guessing.

Which one is better? It depends on yourself and depends on the situation on the table when you are playing it. Bluffing does work if you know how and when to use it. It will be bad if you do both strategy continuously as it will be easy for your opponent to predict what you do. Be variable when you are playing poker, makes your opponent hard to read what you have.

In my own personal opinion, i think in poker its more better in bluffing other players than having a good cards because  you don't need any good cards if you had make your opponents cards fold and it will make the game more exciting or will give more thrill.

Bluff doesn't necessarily need to be an overbet. It may be 30-40% of the pot when you are trying to make some some part of his range to fold for example 2nd, 3rd pair and you have air. And when you get called by Top Pair and better you shouldn't think, bluff doesn't work because you haven't targeted to fold that good hands on the first place.
Overbets are usually used when you have air(bluff) or nuts(the best hand possible) - it should be done with certain frequencies though - you can't 100% overbet when you have bluff, or only overbet when you have strong hand, because players will figure you out fast.

Poker is strategy type of gambling so bluffing and having good card become the advantage for winning the game.
Of course it's difficult to master but if you can success , you can live like Dan Bilzerian's life !!

Both are necessary, you cannot become a successful player in poker without bluffing, this is very important especially when you are in the latest positions like the button, if no one has raised it is almost mandatory to raise even if you have one of the worst hands since you could win the hand without even reaching the flop, personally I prefer to be a solid player playing mostly strong hands, but you need to understand that the number of players on the table greatly affects how many hands you should play, if in the table there are 10 or more players you need to play very tight but if you are playing a heads up match up then you need to play almost every hand regardless of what you have.

Depends a lot on how well you know the players, and how often you bluff. I used to play a lot of poker with the same regular friends, and our style is to have a second person sitting with the player, sort of like pairs playing with each other. Allowed for more variations of bluffing (my pair was pretty good, a Filipino probably used to gambling haha, knew how to fake surprise really well haha).

Some players also play to other players' hands, instead of their own, as some people behave almost the same way depending on their hand, that way you don't build a behaviour on your own hand.

But yes, I think the stats show that the most successful players play hands, bluffs are too risky to call all the time anyway, and should only be played once the crazies are out (those that just chase down every call/raise).

I haven't played poker for quite a while and I don't know if/how much times have changed, but when I used to play back in the day there was a lot of bluffing going on especially in the tournament and sit&go matches. If you wanted to have a better chance of going further in the tournaments you had to try to double your stack as early as possible. It was basically a massive shitshow of people going all-in with all sorts of bad combinations hoping to catch a good card on the river and win the pot. Then if you somehow made it into the later stages there was the ante stealing which was mandatory in order to stop rapidly losing your chips. Sit & go games were in the same fashion only slower.
I would say, in general, bluffing happens less frequently on cash tables as regulars know each other pretty well and are less likely to use tricks over solid hands.

Yeah, in online tournaments, particularly freerolls, all rules and tactics go out the window for the first 10-20 hands. I would barely even call it bluffing - people going all in pre-flop and you knew full well that the majority of them had nothing spectacular, and were just betting on getting some lucky community cards.

I think bluff is a high risk, which a person should take only when he can afford to lose everything and the game for him is no more than just a fun. On the other hand it's not less hazardous to keep playing very confidently, when you have a strong hand. In fact, this might be even worse, as such a player keeps betting so confidently not even thinking that some of other players might have a little better cards. I think such situations often lead to a total disaster.

these two options are very good in the game to increase confidence and also the strategy to influence the opponent, the oppression is needed in this game has a function where when exactly do it, if someone will make yourself more depressed, all depends on confidence and make decisions well, more bluff then i sure will be good in every game, already good at reading rhythm game.

Poker is more of a psychological and skill game, more than luck. The main aim of the player should be to become unpredictable or un-readable so that opponent has no idea if youve got the cards or not. If you play one style of game, that is only playing good cards or bluffing a lot of times, the good players will pick that up easily and have a better educated guess on what you might have done. Antonius is great at keeping it unpredictable while Negreanu is great at reading his oppositions plays and cards. If you can do both, Im sure you can make a good living out of just playing poker, but thats the tricky part. It is very hard to do so. Theres a lot of theory and maths involved in becoming good at poker player too. I guess you start reading a few books so that you can make better educated guesses and calling those bluffs once in a while and getting paid. Good luck. :)

good cards with good bluffs is a weapon to win in poker , I know a friend that is so good in bluffing and most of the time he beat us when we play since i am not good in it but later on I also learned how to hide my emotions and know how to bluffs also it is really a good trick in playing poker but still gambling is still risky.

Poker is one of the most popular games in gambling, in fact when you say Gambling Poker is one of the game that you will immediately remember or think of, also Poker face was invented in relation with this game.

Pokerface is a showing no facial expressions giving a blank expression to your opponents. In that way you can trick your opponent and they will be having a hard time what kind of card you are having. I prefer Bluffing in Poker since there are a lot of times when this strategy won a lot of tables. You can't really play a good card without some quite bluff.

In low levels, it is better to play only with good cards and to value bet. If you play online and you use a statistic program, you can bluff in certain spots. For example, if an opponent fold 50% of the time to the continuation bet, you can bet safely 50% of the pot in any flop because it is a profitable EV+ movement.

In higher levels, bluffing and semi-bluffing is more important.

I guess it’s a combination of knowing what to do when you have those certain cards. If you see people who are good in bluffing, they have the confidence in what they are doing and they could also bluff when they have good cards and act like you have a bad one. It’s a combination and it’s definitely a great strategy to do.

I think using both combined bluffing and playing with good cards are good. If you only play with good cards, other player will know your strategy. It's depend on the situation too.

Your maths is wrong. If opponent is folding more then 33% of the time it is auto profitable to bet 50% of the pot. Here is the formula to get break even and you could go from there:  breakeven % = risk / (risk + reward)
If pot is 100 and you bet 50 then you risk 50 to win 150 so opponent needs to fold more then 33% to be profitable.
This formula can be used if you try to calculate whether the bluff is profitable as well - for a pot size bet bluff it needs to work more then 50% of the time.

In low levels, other players don't pay attention to your strategy. That's why you can play only with good cards, and value betting.


Your reading comprehension is wrong. Read again. I knew that before you were born.

It is true that is profitable, but the breakeven line is 33% so some new players may got confuse with your statement.

Even though your explanation is more accurate, I just put an example because I took for granted that the average reader of this board doesn’t know much about poker, so they could get confused by a formula.

Apart from that, if we use that formula for cash, we would need to take rake into account, so the opponent would need to fold more than 33%.

Those are pro, they can bluff and win the pot and I have seen Negreanu doing it, as he is good in reading the opponents cards as well and can see it they are bluffing or not. For me you can try it for sometime and see how good you are at bluffing others.  ;D. But for those casuals like us, much better to take it easy and fold if you don't have a good card and hope that you will get a good one on the next deal.

I think we need both of those strategy to win the game, the main point to win in pvp poker game is to become unpredictable because once the opponents know your strategy then you will lose the game, so bluffing is one of the most important skill in poker, poker is the only gamble game that you can win although you got a bad card that is why so many like to play poker

Two completely different things.

I'd say if winning is ALL you want, then you MUST be a turtle and play only with good cards.
Which is really boring! Especially if you are in a fun social environment such as a real casino.

Bluffing is an art and one can always get burned by it.. check out youtube videos on WSOP bluffs went bad.

Good cards in poker are the result of luck, while the ability to skillfully bluff a person can use in any case at his own discretion. Bluffing is what helps the player to win even with bad cards. Professional players rely primarily on themselves and their abilities, and only then - on the luck and will of the case.

Bluffing on poker gambling is a common thing and everyone will use it that way, so you should also be ready when your opponents bully back.
it's all excitement at the time of playing poker and it requires strong mental and strong capital, the most important must have strong feelings when bully or otherwise.

I hated playing in freerolls, because no basic rules or common sense applied there before you have reached the final table and usually it was a massive waste of time for no gain at all as you would be busted half-way through even if you played strictly by the book. In the paid tournaments and sit&go's things were much better as people don't go all crazy most of the time when their cash in on the line. Aggressive maniacs frequently make it to the final table though, because after they double or triple their stacks the snowball effect is real and it's very, very difficult to compete with the monster stacks when they literally can bust you with a simple raise or re-raise.

This sounds very reasonable. Unpredictability is very important. It is also very good if you are able to predict the cards of your opponent. I saw one marvelous bluff by Negreanu when he got terrible cards but kept raising and then said to his opponent: 'You must have Ace King or two Aces". As we saw on the screen, he indeed had Ace King, so when he heard Negreanu saying that and raising more, he just folded.
But pretending you have awesome cards when they are just normal seems okay, while putting a lot of money in a game you can't win unless everyone folds looks too risky to me anyway.

Skills do vary and you should really make yourself to be unpredictable. I remember those days when im still new to Poker where veteran players can easily detect if you are just bluffing. When you do suck up on earlier days on playing but when you do gain experience on playing specially into very good players you would able to identify on yourself on how to set-up or hold a card and make bluff when you do have a shitty card.
It do works but well this will still depend if luck would be on your side too.

Depends .Does anybody did try bluffing with online poker
If you will play always only with good cards then your rivals will know the way you are playing
So it is  poker be flexible

I would feel a lot more confident going into a poker game with good cards, than having to bluff my way through the game.

Watching is different when you are already the person who's playing same deal with playing free games and the actual gambling, I guess its hard to bluffs when you are ain't sure about the mental capability of your opponents, sometimes you'll be lucky but most of the time you'll failed the difference is who's playing against with and how experienced they are in terms of this game, poker is really  entertaining yet very engaging type of gambling, it's all about money management and how tough you can risk inside the table.

Speaking from some experience, it is almost always a better play to just wait until you have some good cards instead of get fancy and bluff people off strong hands. For starting hands and going to a flop there's a pretty general list of cards depending on what position you are in the hand.

Well, that scenario that the OP sited separates the experienced poker player to the rest of the pack. To fold or to play his hand even if it's very weak and bluff comes down to experience of the player and if he has the balls to take any risks that encompasses with his decisions. It would take a lot of balls to do that (any of the options that I said above) especially when the stakes are higher than a normal match but veteran players make good amount of money out of these situations.

As far as I know you have to combine them. I even think you need to lose small amounts knowingly so that the other person thinks you are strict about your hand. If you only bet on the good hands than the opponent will not bet when you have a good hand and increase the pot. However, if you mix it up and both bluff and play on good cards and intentionally lose money all those three combined would make you unpredictable and when you invest a high amount the other side will never know if its a sure thing or not. In some sense, poker is for experienced gamblers. Newbies are recommended to start by watching professional poker players.

if you stick to only one way then your opponents will know that and will use it against you . of course, each individual has his/her strategy to play poker or gambling in general,but the best way according to my mindset is to make a mix between bluffing and playing with good cards,that way they will never know what you thinking.

Opponents in low or micro levels, know as recreational players or fish, don’t pay attention to any strategy, they just think about their hand. Bluffing vs those players is usually EV- because they pay with weak hands.

In my own point of view, i think its much better if you bluff your opponents in playing poker rather than having a good cards because you do not need any good cards if you can easily bluff your opponents, so they could fold their cards.

Nothing has changed, I prefer to play in large tournaments and sit and go tournaments and things have not changed at all, the very first hands in the large tournaments are nothing more than a lottery, but once things get more calm bluffing is mandatory but you need to adjust your play depending on the composition of the table, if the table is full of aggressive players it is better to play a very tight game, if you do you could double your chips easily.

One of my favorite plays in such a table is to check-raise when I have pocket aces since this confuses them, they see me as a passive player and they think they can easily steal my money only to realize that they have big problems, if they fold I get their money which is the equivalent of many blinds but if they call they will have the lower chances of winning, so it is a win-win for me.

Bad cards = Bluff then the next round will be the other way around.

Remember that continous behaviour might be an easy read by your opponents so try to manipulate it by changing chores of movement.

Based on your statement, are you fairly new to the game? The answer on your question can be seen by actual testing it and see if it's effective in any of the rounds. Anyways there are lots of strategies you will learned all the way if you will continue to play. Build experience and soon you can deal with your problem

If playing poker only with a dealer I think the "bluffing" strategy is not the right thing. But to play with a lot of people at one table, "bluffing" might be a strategy that might work if you believe their cards are not as good as you imagine.

Bluffing is the SHOULD be one of the ways you play in Poker.
Without it there isn't a more chance for you to win vs others who will just try it on.
Consider it as a PLUS when you really need it to.

Sounds about right, bluffing is the high risk strategy and the gamble ontop of the gamble.   I think anyone who has to wonder between the two should just play the simple take of playing the best cards they have working out their opponents.  Later trying to make something out of nothing can maybe make sense every now and again,

I'm not really a heavy poker player but I played poker a long time ago and tried to bluff my way to win some games and this poker game is real life not online. Body language plays a big part in bluffing, there should be no difference when you bluff or you are playing with good cards, that way other players cant read your movement.

If you play poker at online, that all thing are useless because they can see the person each other which is this is an online world. I think how to bluff at online world is, act like you have a good card and raise, also don't call fastly, wait around 5-10second to make it like you have a good card.

Yeah, playing poker online and offline has differences.

You can bluff easily if you are facing with other players but if its through online things are becoming different.

I have watched those incredible moments with bluffers but it's not because they are good but they know how to do it, they are the real professionals in poker.

Body language and the expressions in your face can be used by your opponents to know whether you are just bluffing or you really got a good cards on hold, one of the practice of experience players is to have a poker face when playing, trying to play without any emotions and can tricked out their opponents, really hard if you are not that much engage with this game.

I think mixing the options is a great strategy however you need to make sure you only bet big on the ones you have great hand.
Do not go in all the hands thinking you will either bluff or lose intentionally, just bet on great hands and put up a small amount on just decent hands and when you have horrible hands try to not bet as long as possible, if there is no bet increasing on the table of course you can just sit and watch the game with your bad hand but if there is bet increasing and you have a horrible hand there is no point of bluffing or even intentionally losing with that hand.

Do what you said but with either great hands or decent hands at worst, never do it with horrible hands.

I think for a skillful player both strategies could be combined to work really well but bluffing is not for everyone and sometimes can be really costly.

You can apply the same philosophy when bluffing online, there are many people that when they bluff they bet too little or too much, there are also those that take too much time or too little, you need to bluff in the same exact way that you bet, also it is very important to remember that most of the time bluffs are more effective when you have more chips than your opponent, you have the advantage of the position in the table and people recently saw you winning a big hand, that way that memory will be fresh on their minds and when they see you raising they will imagine that you have another good hand and they will prefer to just forfeit the pot.

It's much safer not to bluff and focus on the cards, but there are exceptions. If you play with newbies they will sometimes be scared and playing very offensive and bold can scare them even more and make them fold with something like a pair in hand. So bluffing can work but it's much better to avoid bluffing with nothing. I never bluff with a bad hand, only if I see a potential in a flop.

Being able to bluff with a bad hand is the riskiest way to play. The only way that you're gonna win is by making everyone else fold. You have to make them believe that you have a really good hand and that you're going to win. Sometimes a good bluffer can make someone with a good card just fold. For example, if you can easily make a flash from the cards that are already out. Let's say there's three cards of hearts out, you betting big all of a sudden will make your opponent assume that you have a pair of hearts and that you have a flush. Another way that you can win with a bluff with a bad hand is when the other person who played you until the end also has a bad hand, and it's worse than yours.

I think it's important to bluff sometimes so they will not think that you only raise during times that you have a combination. You have to make them scared of you when you are bluffing, and you have to make it look like you're scared of them (look like you have a bad card) when you have a good card so they will keep on raising. Thus, having the most pot, winning the most.

Actually, all of the people that playing pokers has a different strategies or ways of playing. Sometimes, it is good to be a bluffer but it is much better that if we played with a good a better cards.  It is very hard to do bluffing because the  chances to win is also difficult. It can 50% to win and 50% to loose. However, playing having a good cards can gives a 90-99% chances of winning. But I think it is depends on the situations that it has in a certain time.

You will never win in the long run if you only play with your good cards, Poker is about to read your opponents.
The guys you mention above, they are expert on this, that is why they after 10 years still are among the best players in the world

Why you wouldn't bluff if you don't have a choice and there's no harm of trying it if you are in the middle of nowhere in front of the table.

It's risky as it is but once you have tried it out, you can forget for awhile the risk that you are saying. But just don't do it if you are not comfortable of doing it and play only with good cards but that strategy can be read by your opponents.

While your in the seat, you have to be unpredictable.

I don't play much poker myself but I do enjoy watching it. It's quite frustrating when people dismiss poker as just a game of luck.  Well, it' no coincidence that the same group of players keep winning.  Poker is a psychological game won by people with a strong mind.  Some amateur can get lucky in a few games but over the long run, the same professionals win the majority of tournaments.

I try to use bluff only in seldom cases. I do not feel that I'm good enough with it and people easy can read me, I mean in the life game. Good cards are exactly the thing which is better in my style of game, but I suppose there are people with opposite strategy.

If you'd be scared of their cards you'd fold. If you keep putting money on the table each time they raise it shows that you aren't as scared as you want to look ;)
It's a psychological game. If you have a good card and you keep raising they might think that you have a good card, but they also might think that you're bluffing and play along. I've seen some bad reads in poker tournaments when 1 guy was bluffing and kept raising while another player had much higher card.

I do bluffing but i only bluff during with a good card, bluffing to let the opponent to bet more to increase the pot. But if my cards are not good i simply fold dunno wanna waste my chips bluffing.

i prefer to play with good cards and bluffing very seldom. of course it works not without, but you should not do it often. this is how i get furthest when playing poker.

Bluffing is critical if we want to be a successful poker player but there are two different philosophies, those that play a very solid game only bluff once in a while and people believe their bluffs precisely because they are solid players so when they bluff they imagine they have a very good hand.

But there is another way, there are many that bluff a lot and while this means their bluffs will be called more often at the same time this means that other players will call on them when they are not bluffing! So they can extract a lot more money from other players when they have good hands since no one believes them they have a good hand, I have seen players like this first hand and they get great profits with a winning hand.

Neither bluffing nor playing only with good cards, these entities are related to gambling somehow and you all must know gambling is fatal for your finances. Do you want to be living a loosely held life? Where your family is against you and they get separated from you? Do you really want to stay on roads in extreme cold and heat? Then don’t spoil your good days in gambling.

That is not connected in any way to my comment, we are talking about one of the basic strategies of poker, it has nothing to do with gambling addiction, of all the games I have seen poker is one of the less addictive because it is a game of strategy in which you need to think and outsmart your opponent since it is a game of skill and not of luck.

Can you lose in the game? Of course, if the other person is better but if you are reasonably good you can break even so you basically can obtain fun without paying a dime which is way better than in other casino games, so if you do not like poker or gambling in general that is your right, but if a person has complete control of his gambling and his money there is nothing you can say for that person to stop doing it.

Watching pros play is misleading, not everything is aired, and they format it to be exciting.  And during final table tourneys they have little options, and anything they do looks epic.  Unedited play among pros is boring and lasts hours, with lots of folding.  In real life you will naturally find yourself being drawn into a certain style, some like being nitty, some are excellent gamblers, needing only two cards to play.  I liked playing with good cards only in casino because good and bad results often bunch up, so when good hands streak, some people don't think it can be so many good hands.  But in a tourney, there simply might not be too many options after a certain point, and bluffing can work really well too.

This seems to be a little more technical to game but I think we must cut it off here. Don’t go in details because when a thing is controversial and you need to explain it, first just decide whether it is for benefit for others or not. And gambling is harmful for every single person on earth. How can we then be discussing different aspects? Don’t get into this world, its alarming.

People could read your mind if you are keep doing bad bluffs. Save it and do it only when you think it's the right time. It is all about not being predictable.

Sometimes do some bluffing is good though, act like you have a good card on your hand, just do it for 1-2 hands. Of course you can't always win with bluff, just don't bluff everytime.

Make sense. Why bluff if you have good cards. Focused instead on how will you take your good cards as advantage. Although there are people who still do bluffs even with a good card, Im not that kind of player as I have different approach whenever I will used bluffs.

Bluffs is the secondary option once you have bad cards. No sense of focusing to do bluffs while you have a good card on your hands unless you want to play around.

I remember someone with good cards and still do bluffs by putting pressure on bet. In the end, got wrecked on that round.

Sounds correct because you must also judge your opponents cards as well, otherwise even a good hand can lose to a better hand and worse is if you have wrongly place too much confidence and too many chips with your strong hand.
Sometimes a player is just going to be unlucky while even having good cards, if the other players also have a better hand.   So to make up for those losses, playing an average hand like its worth something and beating or realising the other players have a weaker set of cards is going to be necessary.  Its all relative!

There is no doubt that you must be able to bluff.  As they say, who does not take risks, he does not drink champagne.

Statistically, in the long run, you will win playing only good cards. Of course, this also requires a lot of self-discipline, as it can happen that you only get bad hands for a long time. You can do bluffs, but only if you are in position, for example, and if you have not made a name for yourself, that you often bluff, otherwise the effect fizzles out. I played online and offline poker for a while and learned that from really good and successful players.

I would go for both in different ocasions :D

Bluffing when you know it will work out more then just a regular cards playing with hands.

In poker first you have to read the opponent way of betting if you are playing directly or even online with live players. because both options are working but according to the situations have to imply the pattern. Some time when opponent is playing bluff and if you find it then you can also bluff high so will close the game but some time it may go opposite also. So both option have to be played according to the situation of the game.

Poker games I do not have belief on this at all. Most of the poker games are scamming the investors whoever making the decision is feeling right. I love to play with the fair on gambling side but I did not find the many gambling not been trusted with the poker room games.
They seems noticing our moves with the help of various executive and maximum time opponents are not being real person and they only have the computer or their people at there.

I think you might have some bad experiences or you would have bad intentions and objectives that are fulfilled with this fake game. Because a wise person never ever had good experiences in this game. People lose their money and valuables in this detrimental game and you are calling it a good experience. Winning for some little time doesn’t mean you are earning from good experiences.

I think you can use bluffing and of course, you need to confident in pretending that you have a good card so another player will think that you have good cards. but this cannot works if the other player has a really good card so you will lose the game. but playing with good cards will be recommended as you don't have to worry about anything because you know that you can win. but it is difficult to always get good cards in poker since we can get a random card.

It has to work if you were good at bluffing because that's the point of doing it, being able to make those who have good cards fold because you are betting too much that they think that you have a sure-win pair of cards. You have to scare them down that they end up folding. Even with good cards, they question themselves and go like "This guy probably has really good set of cards." This works especially when there's an obvious possible flash or straight in the combination right when the 3 cards are put down. For example, there are 3 cards of the same sign or the 3 cards' numbers are near each other.
But is betting high with good cards can still be considered as bluffing? Bluffing, according to Urban Dictionary (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bluffing), means "saying you have something that you don't ..." And you basically 'speak' and pretend that you have good cards by betting high or even going all in just to scare them off. Bluffing, when you have good cards, would mean that you're not raising high, you're just going with the flow. You're just going to be checking/calling with the bets faking that you only have relatively good cards and that you just wanna see it through the end.

Not entirely true, playing against humans is completely different than to play against computers, a good human player will determine your style of playing after seeing you play for a while, if they know you only play good hands then as soon as you raise they will fold.

Poker is a game of deception as well, there are games in which all the information is laid out right in front of you but in poker most of the information is concealed and you only know what your opponent has is if two players remain after the final round of betting and they have to show their cards, so playing bad cards once in a while is a good strategy and it is important that your opponents see this as well, that way when you raise the chances they call your raise are greater and you extract more profits out of them.

Its both a stratedgy that you may use to your opponent which is not only a strategy but learn how to feel what kind of a player your opponent was so you can spot his weakness in playing. I am playing poker and sometimes my opponents are not that easily bluff it really takes a 3-5 game to know and find your playing strategy.

It seems like you have no idea about poker at all. Have you ever played or do you just want to write some post here? What you say makes no sense at all. In poker, you do not play against the bank but against other players. The bank collects only a tiny fee per game no matter who wins or loses. That's why it makes no sense at all for the bank to favor anyone.

Likewise, as I've said that this is a very situational decision making that you can bluff if you have the guts or you are about experimenting on how tough the other hands are. But if one bite your bait, you can have an idea on how weak he is and scared when you are bluffing.

Just don't show it to the others on how you are bluffing them, don't do it accordingly. You have to do unpredictable moves so that other hands will not notice that your main goal is to keep bluffing them if you have bad cards.

I think it’s also dependent in your opponents. If you feel like they are easy to bluff, why not? Into believing that you really have great cards. It’s definitely a gamble all right, especially before the flop. It’s crazy when people do that.

In my own personal opinion, it is better in playing poler if you are good in bluffing your opponents than having a good cards because even you don't have a good card you can pretend that you have a good card for you to win in the game.

I really like poker, bluffing to shake the opponent's mentality is the art of poker in my opinion ;D. We can combine, sometimes we bully, sometimes we hold it, feeling we have to be good at playing poker, don't let the opponent read our tricks, but we must be able to read their tricks. Once again I really like poker.

I love to play poker, especially in tournaments with a lot of participants, and I prefer the following strategy. When the bets are low in the very beginning I bluff all the time risking up to 25% of my bankroll. Sometimes I win and other times I lose and thus people at the table can see I was bluffing. Then when blinds are higher I make it look like I'm off-line if I have a bad hand, and with a good hand I play behaving as before when I was bluffing. Some people are folding anyway but some go all-in and I win big. Of course it depends on luck in the end because you can think that you are having the best hand with Full House and yet lose to someone with 4 of a Kind.

And one more thing which is important. You should never use one strategy all the time. You should have several of them and mix them unpredictably. If it was my only strategy I wouldn't make this post. Actually no poker player would do that.

Poker is a skill based game and it's tricky when we have to observe everyone on the table. Bluffing too often is not good player strategy. We have to know when to do it and we do it at the right time. For me, poker is not favourite game of mine.

Well gambling legends are already able to estimate the frequency to which their hand is likely to be beaten, in the end, having the best cards enables you to win more frequently with a no bluff strategy, but you can definitely bluff your way to a win if you get a few favorable positions to do so.

Personally, I tend to play a mixture of both, bluff when I have a good opportunity into a set I know the opponent doesn't have.

For those that are interested, there are actually mathematically opportune moments to bluff if certain cards come down on the flop, turn and river, if you memorize the combinations and number of players at the table and compare it to the charts you'll be able to determine if you have an ample opportunity to bluff.

See this for more information - https://www.cardschat.com/bluffing.php

Sometimes bluffing is also a good strategy for specific high risk moments when there are high stakes on the table or to provide more strong looks against oponents.

Im not sure a profit occurs so often without bluffing some and of course you dont know the oppositions cards so theres always going to be guessing as to if the position is strong enough anyway.   Isnt it always the case that your good cards is only relative to the other players, so its impossible to judge precisely.

I am not the type of player that really depends on bluffing other players. I'd rather stay quiet in games but there are some times that you really need to use bluffing especially if you are in a moment that don't have a great a position to be quiet.

So I guess it is really important to use both since it is both effective to win your poker games. Bluffing is a great way to pressure your opponents and it is usually effective as playing with good cards.

As it is, it is always mostly about playing with each other's mind if I am correct. I have never played poker myself though, but I have read few things about it, and from the look of things if I am to play poker actually, I would prefer to be having a strong hand when it comes to the card I am holding than to be relying on bluffs that could backfire eventually. One way or the other, the both of them will always get to come in handy as it would give you an edge when you are actually being dealt good cards at the end. Even if you have to bluff at all, you need to be able to know when to be going ahead with it.

I would say poker has a lot of things to do with how a player can actually end up making an opponent to think what they want them to think to their own favor but it still takes a whole lot of skills to still be able to do it right. Personally I would prefer playing with only good cards as that at least would even give you a better chance but we all know everything is basically more like a game of luck anyway, so one way or the other, it is how lucky you are that would determine if you will be leaving the table with an empty pocket or a full one.

Bluffing with good cards  ;D you can act like you are not sure in your cards and only reply on bets of other people who will raise the bet thinking that you are weak, but in the final you are going to have all.

Everyone would prefer having good cads always but we can't expect that happening every time you play. I myself tried this strategy(no bluffing at all) several times and came to conclusion that in most cases you lose with it eventually. Aggressive players would wipe you off the table pretty quickly if you were not acting accordingly. It's not only about bluffing from your side, but also about feeling that someone else is bluffing and that you can win having just a pair of Kings after the river card is revealed.

I know this thread is full of people who haven't played a single hand of poker just by reading all the replies...  C'mon guys...  It's obvious.

Anyway, poker is a game of adjustment and readjustment aka 'leveling'.  The more history you have with your opponent, the more you'd, more or less, know the adjustments to make.  And it gets quite complicated as you'll find out that the more you know, the more you don't know...

Probably some people just think they are already playing poker when they play it in a game app, but in reality, the pain of losing and the strategic thinking, on the spot games, the competitive games are different.

I know that you could improve your chances in beating your opponent just by watching them, on replays, or what I do is sometimes imitate the plays of pro players only by knowing what they would do in a specific scenario. It's not necessarily the same gameplay since it would be impossible, but the chances of having good plays would be higher.

Everything depends on where you are playing and how your opposite opponent is playing. In poker you can win by bluff but if the opposite players is most of time use to bet then i think it is not good to bluff. Even for bluffing you should have courage to lose if opposite player bet on your bluff. So everything depends on where you play.

I have played online player to player so many times and use to change strategy and in that some time i bluff and win. So anything can happen in poker, you just have to play smartly and some luck should also favor you.

That's why people can entitled a millionaire by bluffing on poker match.
Why ?
Eventhough if you have poor card, you can still win.

Let's see the real man, Dan Bilzerian that succesfully entitled a millionaire from Poker
And yes, it's become the advantage if you can do it both !

Bluffing is necessary for winning the game. If you are not bluff master it will be difficult for you to win the game. Only good cards will not favor you in winning the game. You must be a bluff expert. If somebody thinks that it is not right to bluff in game, I want to ask them, is gambling well for your family and their future? A wrong thing should be full of bluffing.

You will good cards with luck which will not favor you most of the times. Bluffing is the main factor in poker games. If you are an experienced bluffer you can win the game easily and win big money, but if you are not then you may lose your money because of a good bluffer opponent. In some gambling games only bluffing will help you and luck is not counted there.

Only if you are very experienced and can manage the emotion while taking the bluff. Not all bluffs are so good though it can really make you a millionaire. There are bad story with bluffing but just to confuse the other hands, this is a very good strategy.

I watched one video with the young champion nearly a decade ago winning $8.5M.

Name's Peter Eastgate.

Many professional poker players became rich with it and they can do both, bluffing and playing with good cards. Through experience anyone can be a victim of bluffing.

It all depends on the level of the game you are playing as well. If you are playing against noobs and you level is much higher than their levels than bluffing at times could work out for you since you would probably win more times than they would and that would cause them to fold when you bluff with nothing in your hand.

Moreover, if you are playing on a table with much better players than you than I would suggest playing more conservatively, in the end the blinds will go up and if you do not ever go in the pot you will lose your money slowly by just blinds and whenever you get in they will know you have something in your hand (since you didn't get in without them) and they might just fold and eventually you will lose all your money without winning much.

So, all you have to do in that scenario is to make them think you are even worse than you are and get in on a bad hand thinking you have a shot at it, you will know you have no shot at it at all but they will think you have no idea what you are doing, bet on small pots and try to lose some knowing you will lose and make the pro players think you are losing quickly, and when you have a good hand you will get into it and they will have their hubris thinking they are so good and you are so bad and they will get in on it thinking once again you have a bad hand but you will beat them this time. That will put them off guard and you will have a shot at it.

Big difference between playing vs house and actual players online and the nature of those players, timeframe and duration they have been at the table and all sorts of factors.   Big or longer term players will get to know each other and recognise each others plays.    I think bluffing is part of all human interactions personally, gambling can teach you alot about people :p

In my country most of the gamblers play poker game and they first master themselves in bluffing. Without bluffing you cannot win poker game. Good cards will not help you the most. When two gamblers set in front of each other both are well experienced and then the games turns into very interesting stage. Both try to defeat each other but the skills take the money.

It's not as easy when there's real money on the line.  And I don't mean the micros - small stakes...  I mean the stakes where winning and losing the pot matters to you.  I used to play a lot online and stakes up to 200NL never bother me that much.  But starting at 400NL - 1000NL, whenever I'm allin (whether I have it or not), my hands start shaking...  And I'm rolled for those stakes.  Lmao.

I don't think I'll regularly ever play that high ever again.  The games today are much harder with all the GTO solvers and all the new poker software I haven't even heard of.  All we had before was PT/Holdem Manager and the hud.

Edit:  I tried building a bankroll again from scratch by starting again at the micros.  Even that is hard these days cos the tables are mostly full of multitabling nits.

Another thing though, it's easier to bluff if you hold most of the chips in the table. Or if you have nothing to lose anymore lol. Sticking to either of these two would make you predictable and we all know that your goal has to as unprrdictable as possible.

Most of the time the people who bluff and end up wining know exactly how to carry themselves, the game is about trying to deceive and confuse your opponents so that they may think wrongly about your motives.

Along with playing with normal cards, players have to bluff sometimes, and they must be good at it. This is because a player cannot get good hands every single time, or even sometimes it takes quite long to get a suitable hand. Gamblers have to bluff in the game of poker and rest is on his/her luck. Often I have seen real games where attitudes worked like a magic and the player bluffed like a king.

Bluffing with good cards and luck will never lose you the game. People will call you the master of poker and nobody would be ready to gamble you because he would know that he would definitely lose the game. Everyone tries to win money in gambling but it is not possible because in two gamblers one will win and the other will lose and finally the winner is always casino.

Playing against other players is the essence of poker. It's what makes the games much more than just putting your cards on the table. After a while you learn other people's moves, if they will bet with weaker cards or bluff, or if they're more cautious and calculating players. It's another side of the game unknown to those who play online against the house.

Yeah, that would be our favorite kind of bluffing for sure. But on the other hand, who knows when do you have "good cards"? I mean you can be 100% sure about that, having a straight flush with the highest card being in your hand, but with lower hands it's complicated. You can be performing a reverse bluff, from your point of view, having  4-of-a-Kind Aces, like Motoyuki Mabuchi in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgOlflDqMD0

and then lose as he did. So, although poker is called a game of skill, whether you win or lose depends on chance more often than not. At least if I lose, I always think that's because I was unlucky. :)

A very important move to bluff and that is why it is said that experience counts in poker. If you are beginner and bluffing you would be skeptical but experience people will never show or you cannot find out easily if they are bluffing or not. It is also a art which is developed over the time when you play it.

Bluffing is the key of winning in poker games. If you are a good and experienced bluffer you will definitely win the game. Make sure that your opponent is not good bluffer than you, otherwise he can give you tough time in the game and my win all your money. Always play with less experienced bluffer in poker games, so that You will always be in profit.

Are you sure that bluffing is the only key of winning in poker games? Bluffing is just a strategy, there is no guarantee that you'll always win by bluffing. Even a poker pro player may still lose when he/she use bluff, or even a pro players getting bluffed by a beginner. So I have to disagree that bluff is the key of winning in poker games.

They are the real experts and knows how to play poker seriously. I'm even afraid to sit infront of those professionals even with just a small money on my hand, they know how to bluff you and they know how to read your face reaction.

If your no good with that then expect that you'll keep on folding your cards and even with the mightiest card you've got, there still a chance that you'll get bluff when they keep on checking and raising. Its true that they are good in deceiving and playing with your emotion but that's a strategy.

This is just a strategy to make the opponenst distracted and make them feel we are at comfortable position to win that game but it involves risk because we knows that we don't have cards for winning but still making the opponents to give up but if they knows that they are having better pairs then no one can stop us from losing the bets.

Bluffing isn`t the key for winning in poker, but it`s essential part of the poker. We don`t see more than 90% of the hands in poker,  that`s why we need to balance between pushing hard with good hands, and being willing to fold or check with weaker hands, but there are always moments when you need to bluff your opponent.. If there are a good chances for opponent to fold you need to play a bit more aggressively both perflop and postflop, of course you need to recognize moment for that. You can always try poker copilot to automatically record your hands and have statistic about your play, after a while from that statistic you will see what you need to do to improve your poker play.

Bluffing's definitely a good skill to have, but you don't need to bluff to be successful at poker, and it's not always good to bluff in certain situations. I don't play poker a whole lot and I'm not an expert at poker by any means, but I place playing with good cards above bluffing when you happen to have good cards. If you don't, then that's where bluffing comes into play, and that's a situation where learning to bluff is helpful.

If you play with good cards, then does it matters? Everyone can win if they have good cards, that's not a point of poker. You have to be unpredictable, sometimes you have to lose even with great cards, sometimes you have to go full even with bad card, sometimes act normal, everything depends on situation, whom you play, how they play and a little bit how lucky you are.

Yes, when we have good cards, we can bluff the other player, and we are very confident to win. But we don't know if the other player has bad cards or good cards. It will not work if they have a good card than us so we will get lost in a poker game. But I see that bluffing is one of the strategies to make the other player become worried and afraid and makes them unconfident. And like you say, it depends on situations in that game, and I agree with you.

If you are a good bluffer you will have good cards all the time. So it is not a problem that you have good cards or not but keep in mind that bluffing is important in poker games. If you don’t have any bluffing experience, you should not play poker games. You can try your luck in some other game. There are many games for gambling. I mostly bet on sports game.

If you have good cards and you are also bluff master, no doubt you will win lot on money in poker games. If you have bluffing experience you will get good cards in every game because of bluffing. One of my friend is very good bluffer and I wonder how he knows the cards in my hands. He knows all the cards in other people’s hand. That why he mostly won the game.

if you have to choose, it's better if you have a good katu. because even if your opponent always bluffs, you can always keep up with your bets and bluff them with a good card. if you don't have a good card and we just bluff, then at the end of the game we will fold.

Bluff with bad card is OK as long as you are sure that your opponent will fold after your bluff. I have seen many pro poker players video that they got bluffed by newbies. Although the newbies has bad hands compared to the pro player, but bluff can be something very powerful to be used. Of course, you need to take a look at the whole situation on the table especially your opponent's face and movement. Do bluff when you are ready to lose only, as it is gamble. The chance for your opponent to call is the same as the chance to fold. Even if you have good hands and you start to bluff but your opponent is a great poker poker players and know that you are a bit doubt of what you do then he will bluff you back and at this time you may fold if you are not ready to lose.

Bluffing requires a lot of gut. I mean, you will not be able to bluff your enemy if you are not really into that kind of strategy, you must really have a huge gut to do that since it is really hard to act while being nervous.

I did bluff my gambling opponents in an online game but that is different since it is online, they will never be able to see your poker face, the way you will be expressing yourself while doing that. Also, your opponents will not know whether you are bluffing or not the reason for me, having a great card and combining it with bluffing is a great weapon.

Are you playing with real money online? Or just a game token/chip? In my case, I was playing online poker 2 years ago, but I'm not playing with real money, just a game chip. But, what makes it more interesting to play is you can actually sell your chips into Fiat.
Anyway, back to the topic. Playing in an actual table inside the casino bears different level of pressure than playing online. And I can say, if you regulary play in a certain casino, bluffing is really necessary to maintain an unpredictable character. If you don't bluff at all, your opponents could easily read your cards. What is important when bluffing is to know when and how to execute.

What kind of bluffing we can do in poker games, I think is just by overbetting to make rival is fold. But I think the bluffing strategy in poker can go well and also badly, because not always the rivals we bluff have bad cards, there are times when our rivals have good cards too and will continue to fight. I think this is an extreme strategy, I personally will not do that strategy too often, because the more I sink into losses, the better I will play safely and only go forward when I have a good card.

That is the thing, and I like the way you put it, which is the ability of your opponent to see your poker face. Even if you want to bluff you should know that you stand a greater chance of winning in most cases, than bluffing for no reason which could actually backfire if care is not taken, depending on how smart your opponent is.

The best thing is to have a pretty good hand and in that way you are only trying to use your other poker skills to drag your opponent into what you want them to think most of the time, but at least, you will not end up being screwed in a way when you have a good hand and sometimes we also have to realize that everyone is trying to act and play smart, so indeed, your own weapon can still end up being used against you, so you still need to be careful how you use it.

Why would you bluff them with good card? that's not bluffing if you have a good card. When we bluff, the cards on our hands aren't so good so I don't get it why you'll bluff having a good card.

If its a face to face table, you can bluff easily but there are poker players who are used to this and knows if the other hand is just bluffing. There's a time that you can bluff but not all the time this is guaranteed and will work.

You can bluff all the time if somehow they never guess, obviously they may end up doubting your cards when you have good ones and this also creates a profit to your benefit also.   Its alot easier to do online I think but online leads to a greater range of players including far more unexperienced players then otherwise.

Poker is one of the famous games for gambling. As I remember poker was the earliest game for gambling. A good poker player assumed to be a good gambler. Therefore for gambling in past years gambler would learn how to bluff and how to win the game with cheating. The best cheater and bluffer would also win the game.

Bluffing by itself is definitely not the key of winning. I've noticed that in a poker tournament with hundreds of participants, players who bluff too much almost never make to the In-The-Money tables. They may win a lot, compared to not aggressive players, in the very beginning, but they usually end up losing everything to one or two players with better hands. Yet, many, if not most of the players, think that bluff is a secret weapon of sorts which they can always use to their advantage. Yes, bluff is a powerful weapon, but it is so powerful that it can kill you if you don't know how to use it moderately.

Always better when you know you have a good hand all the time, as this is the only way you know you stand a good chance of at least winning the poker game in the first place, and also it also depends on your opponent anyway and how they are able to call your bluff, but in the long game, it is all about luck and the card you are dealing, and knowing that poker is more like a game of reading your opponent as well as holding good hands, there is always a way that everything is somehow intertwined.

There are those who knows how to read if you are bluffing or not but there are also those who are very good in bluffing. If am holding a very bad card I would rather fold than play with it and lose more in the process. I am not good in bluffing. Maybe there are those who are good with it and gets away with it so the answer to topic is it depends if you are good at it and how much you want to risk.

That's just not true, there are many people who play tight-aggressive and still get +EV.
You don't need to be a good bluffer to pull off a strategy like that, especially when you're playing online poker.

I would say it's not a good idea to bluff too much, especially when you're just a beginner.
When you're more experienced, you might want to play loose-aggressive though.

It is actually an art as well to bluff because many time experienced people can recognize if other person is bluffing or not. But their are people who are also an expert in bluffing as if no body can know as well if they are bluffing or telling truth. Only practice over some time can make somebody so good at it.