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How to Bluff Without Lying

Poker players are not liars. Likewise, a bluff is not a lie – it is a test. Thinking of a bluff as a test of your opponent rather than a lie can lay the groundwork for a paradigm shift worth a whole lot of money.

First of all, know your opponent. Knowing your opponent is the most important skill any poker player possesses. While every player does it differently, Phil Hellmuth classifies players by identifying them as one of five animal counterparts:

1. The Mouse – The Mouse is the most conservative of players and almost never raises without an extremely powerful hand. This is the player who tends to be the easiest to rob of blinds, but the hardest to come over the top of.

2. The Jackal – The Jackal is the exact opposite of the Mouse and bets with reckless abandon. This is the player who bets with trash and gets himself deep into hands that he has no business being in. While generally protective of their blinds, this is a player who is extremely susceptible to strong river bets and coming over the top of.

3. The Elephant – The Elephant is the most passive of players, and seldom does anything but call. They play a lot of hands and suffer from that most costly of poker diseases: “my card is coming; I just need to hold on until the river.” Generally it is a useless venture to bluff an elephant because they don’t really care what you have, they’re there to see some cards and will end up deep into pots with mediocre draws.

4. The Lion – The Lion is a good poker player. The Lion has solid hand requirements but still plays trash from time to time to avoid being labeled a mouse. The Lion is difficult to take advantage of as he could be holding anything, but tends to be holding something strong.

5. The Eagle – God only knows what the Eagle actually is, but Hellmuth calls himself one. Presumably, the Eagle is a top-tier poker God like Doyle Brunson or Phil Ivey. The Eagle is the player who always has position on you, always has better cards and ends up with your chips. It is worth noting that some very successful pros have failed to reach Eagle status in Hellmuth’s book, most notably Gus Hansen. As Phil Hellmuth is the prime example of the Eagle, perhaps it is also the player who squawks the most at the table.

The first thing that Phil Hellmuth does at a poker table is identify his opponents. He takes it easy, playing only premium hands while carefully observing his opponents’ betting patterns. Remember that knowing your opponent does not mean establishing a psychic connection whereby you magically see the cards they are holding written across their face. “Knowing your opponent” means to see the underlying pattern in their betting. Once in a while, you might pick up a “tell”, or subconscious physical movement which signals hand strength. However in most cases, players do not twitch their left eye every time they pick up Aces -- a tell usually has more to do with a basic attitude change or shift in a player’s posture. Once Phil has identified everyone’s animal style, he goes about his Eagle work exploiting each player’s specific weakness.

Once you have established exactly who it is that you are playing against, it’s time to go about taking advantage of them. Remember that if you know what your opponent has or is likely to have, your cards become meaningless. So the presupposition behind most of these bets is that you do not have very good cards.

1. Blind-Stealing. If you plan on succeeding in tournament play, you have to be able to steal blinds. It’s less important in cash games but crucial in tournament play, especially once those blinds have started to get big. It is most easy to steal blinds when you are on the dealer button as there is no one left to act after you but the big and small blinds. Look for situations where tight players (the Mouse in Hellmuth’s world) with healthy chip stacks are in the big blind. It is important to make sure that they have a lot of chips (at least 15 times the big blind) as they may have to call a raise with any two cards if they are too short. Raise enough that for them to call they would have to have a good hand. That way, even if they call, you will have some idea of what they are holding and can make a more informed decision on the flop.

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2. Coming Over the Top. This bet is when your opponent has made a bet or raise, and you “come over the top” with an additional raise of your own. Look for a situation where an overly aggressive player (the Jackal in Hellmuth’s world) has entered a pot looking to steal. A classic example of this would be a player trying to take your blind. Here are two ways to come over the top as a blind in such a hand:

• Re-Raise pre-Flop – The aggressive player raises from a suspicious position like the Button and you triple or quadruple his bet before a single community card hits the table. Make sure you raise enough to really put pressure on the bettor. This bet is doubly effective as it sends a message to the table to stay away from your blind because you will re-raise.

• Call then Check-Raise – This bet is a little trickier as it requires more things to go right, but it can also be worth more. This is where you call the pre-flop bet then check on the flop. Presumably, the super-aggressive player will proceed to bet with any two cards. Once he has made that bet, you come over the top with a big raise. Sometimes players making this play will merely call the bet on the flop and spring their trap later in the hand like on the turn or even the river. By calling, a player can put out the signs of trapping with a monster hand. By calling with nothing but a plan to come over the top later in the hand, a player can be leaving themselves vulnerable to an all-in bet.

3. Coming Over the Top of an Over the Top Bet. This is where a super-aggressive player makes a bet, someone comes over the top of them looking to take advantage, then you come over the top of everyone. Dan Harrington successfully made this bet in the Final Table of the 2004 WSOP main event. This bet only works when the table perceives you as the most conservative of players and you are sure that the re-raiser was making a play on the initial bettor’s aggression. This is an awfully tricky bet as to pull it off requires a tight table image, position on two players, enough chips to scare off the re-raiser and enough courage to make the bet in the first place.

4. Continuation Bet. This is a staple of most pros’ games. It is where you bet after the flop with any two cards. Many times players who have raised pre-flop with a good hand like AK or AQ and have been called by a player in a later position, will bet at any flop -- even ones that look like 8 5 J. Just like coming over the top pre-flop on the big blind, this bet sends the message to the table that if anyone wants to play with you it will not be cheap.

5. Semi-Bluff. This is a bet made on the flop or turn with a hand that is weak at the time, but with the right card would become very strong. This is a hand like four cards of the same suit or four sequential cards, where an additional card could make a flush or straight. Rather than checking to see another card without having to put in chips, the player with the draw will bet out hoping to take the pot before their hand is strong. A semi-bluff is a very effective bet because even if called, the drawing hand can still win the pot outright with the right turn or river card.

Before you go running into a low-limit online poker room with chips blazing, keep in mind that it is actually harder to bluff novice players than to bluff more experienced players. This is because novice players are not able to follow a hand – they have no idea what’s going on. Consequently, they are just as unable to give you credit for a monster hand as they are to pounce on your blind. Playing against novice players can be frustrating, and even more so than at an experienced table, you must have patience when playing against novices. Cash game superhero and Bluff Master Sammy Farha put it best when he said simply, “I’m no good against no good players.”

Don’t think of a bluff as a lie because then you’ll be focused on your cards, rather than your opponent’s. Think of every bet, bluff or not, as a test of your opponent, identify what they are likely to be holding and then take advantage accordingly. Don’t be afraid to go over the top of a Jackal or to steal from a Mouse. Be a hunter at the poker table because from time to time, even Eagles get shot down.

About the Author

This article was published courtesy of PocketFives.com.
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