Bluffing at Poker and Poker Tells

Poker is a game of skill and strategy, and one of the most advanced poker strategy you will develop is the ability to bluff effectively and read tells – so you can call down your opponents bluff. Poker Wingman doesn't help with poker bluffing or poker tells - you need to hone these skills on your own.

Poker Bluffing

Bluffing enables you to win pots you would not have otherwise. Although poker bluffing is a must-have skill in poker, it is often overused by most players and ends up costing them more chips than they win.

Poker bluffing is a useful poker tool in a No-Limit game, where a player's entire stack is at risk each hand. In a Limit game, players know they can only lose so much if they call to the river, so your bluff will be called more often, making it less effective. Avoid poker bluffing in Limit games, especially low stakes Limit games where your opponents are only risking a dollar to call your bluff.

Also, don’t bluff when there are three or more players. Two players might fold their hands, but often at least one will call or even raise. It is much easier to convince one person to fold than it is to convince three or four to fold.

Finally, if you’ve already been caught bluffing at poker, avoid bluffing again in the same game. Your opponents are likely to call you again, and it would be smarter to “fake a bluff” after you’ve already been caught poker bluffing then reveal your monster hand.

Semi Bluffing

Semi Bluffing is the name for poker bluffing when you also hold a drawing hand. The Semi Bluff can succeed in two ways. When you bet on a Semi Bluff you may win the pot by getting another player to fold a better hand. But if you are called, you still have outs that may allow you to end up with the winning hand anyway.

In this example, you currently only have ace high, but you may hit a club flush or make a pair of aces or queens. If you bet with this hand, you are bluffing, but you also have a high likelihood of gaining a strong hand on later betting rounds. Semi-bluffing can be a very useful technique, especially in no-limit games.

Slow Playing

Slow Playing means deceiving your opponents into thinking you have a weak hand, when in fact you hold a monster hand. You should Slow Play if two conditions are met:

1. You hold a whopper, and there is almost no chance of someone drawing on you, and
2. You will only get action if some other cards come out that improve your opponents' hands but not by so much that they will beat your hand.

For example, if you flop a full house, there is no need to scare people out of the pot, because there is little chance of someone drawing out on you. You should wait until the turn or maybe even the river to jam the pot with bets and raises.

Poker Wingman can't help you bluff; bluffing at poker is an art and not a science. But Poker Wingman will give you a competitive advantage by calculating your table position, pot odds, and opponents' odds of making a hand.

Why fly solo when you can have a wingman?

Reading Poker Tells

Reading poker tells at your buddy’s home game is a lot easier than reading tells online. When you can’t see your opponent’s eyes or body language, how can you tell when they’re poker bluffing - or when they’ve got a monster?

Let’s examine the most common online tells. Use these free poker tips to your advantage when looking for tells – and make sure that you’re not doing the “telling” when you play cards online.

Speed of Play

Every online poker room has a maximum response time, or set number of seconds for each player to respond before he is declared either all-in or folded.  The poker room usually beeps a warning sound if you have not responded in time, usually around ten seconds.

Sometimes, due to internet connectivity, a player's actions will seem delayed or slow.  However, the speed of play can be a good “tell.”  Online poker theory states that a quick bet is a sign of weakness, and a delayed action is a sign of strength, as the player is calculating his strategy with what he perceives to be a huge hand.  Watch how many seconds it takes an opponent to take action. If you get a chance to see their cards at showdown, see if you can determine what they “slow bet” with and what they “fast bet” with. 

Is speed of play your online tell? Try to take the same amount of time for every action, so that your opponents cannot draw any conclusions from your own speed of play. Or alternatively, randomly change the speed of betting to keep your opponents guessing. For example, if the last card dealt is a red card, bet after 5 seconds, and if it’s a black card, bet after two seconds.

Use of AutoPlay Check Boxes

Most online poker rooms have an option to pre-select your action, so that when it’s your turn to act you don’t need to click the fold/call/raise buttons. You can tell when your opponent has used an autoplay check box, because his action comes within the blink of an eye of the player before him.  This is a strong online tell, because your opponent has made a decision about their hand before waiting to see the actions of the players before him.

When a player has checked “raise any” it should be obvious that he has a strong hand.  If a player uses the check box to “check” then you can probably assume that his hand is weak.  While online poker theory is not 100% accurate, the observant player can over time, begin to draw conclusions and make assumptions based on an opponent’s use of the check boxes. 

Online Chat

Just as in brick and mortar card rooms, the “chattiness” of a player can be an obvious tell.  Generally, if a player who is chatting all of a sudden gets quiet, you can bet he is now focused on playing his monster hand.  On the other hand, if a player is betting and is a chump in the chat box, he may be bluffing and trying to fake a show of confidence or aggression. 

The topics of discussion are always a good sign too; someone that is debating the merits of the latest poker strategy book is probably more serious than the guy talking about Jessica Simpson’s rack. And watch the chat box for players who are “steaming” or “on tilt.”  A player constantly dropping the “F bomb” probably won’t play good poker until he cools off.

Waiting for the Big Blind

When you sit down at a Holdem table, many times you'll have the option of “waiting on the big blind“ to get to you, or you can post a matching big blind and start playing immediately.  This a good indicator of the patience and discipline of your opponent. If he is not patient enough to wait for the big blind to get around to him, he might not be very patient about waiting on good starting hands.  Expect him to be a loose player.  The opposite holds true for players who do wait for the big blind - either they are patient or cheap – both are signs of a tight player who will wait for good hands rather than throwing down chips.

Going Over the Top

If your opponent raises in a late position (near or on the button), re-raise them a good amount if you are on the blind. Chances are, they don't have a big hand and they're just trying to steal your blinds. This is an aggressive bluffing play in No Limit Holdem known as going “over the top”.

Spotting Fish

Some online tells can help you spot the fish, or the new/bad poker players. Folding when you have the option to check is a classic rookie move.

Watch your opponents fold/flop percentage too – over the course of several games you’ll get a sense if they fold a lot of bad hands or stay in every pot. If he folds a lot of hands, beware.  If he stays in almost every pot, you can probably run over him if you play good cards.

And finally – watch to see if a player is reloading his bankroll, or requesting more chips on a play-money site. Both mean that he is a bad player who is prepared to give even more money away!

When you’re playing against unknown opponents, these typical online poker tips and tells can help a lot since you don’t have any other information to go by. The best way to learn an opponent’s tells is to observe their betting patterns and take detailed notes, paying special attention to any moves outside of their usual pattern.

Poker Wingman can't help you bluff; poker bluffing is an art and not a science. But Poker Wingman will give you a competitive advantage by calculating your table position, pot odds, and opponent's odds of making a hand.

Why fly solo when you can have a wingman?