Poker's most exciting and unique aspect of game play is bluffing. Scientists in various fields as psychology, behavioral biology, economics and others have spent years of research on the effects bluffing has on systems and the effects it has on members of those systems. A poker table is the most basic environment to witness the act of and effects of bluffing. As a poker player, a person needs to understand the repercussions of bluffing.
Bluffing is an art, and in short it is the act of lying to your opponent by suggesting that your hand is the best hand between the two of you. The mechanism for bluffing in poker is chips, and the bidding of chips is a means of representing your confidence in your hand in a measurable manner.
Good bluffing is very hard, because you need to reach
the balance of bluffing and actually having the cards to back up your chips.
Bluffing on ever hand is a sure way to lose all of your chips, because after
a while it will alter your table image to the point where other poker players
will just call your bluff on the simple fact that you have tried to bluff
the last four out of five hands. At the same time being caught in a bluff
can also give your image a little help because it gives you a sense of variability;
meaning that the next time you are bidding against a player for the pot, they
may think your bluffing when you aren't,
or you may be, but they may think that you would not try to bluff again, because
you lost last time. Basically the fact of being caught in a bluff isn't the
end all because it forces other players to treat decisions about you more
carefully because you are unpredictable. At the same time you must also be
winning hands with the best hand to maintain your unpredictability.
Actual bluffing has a certain degree of skill required
as well. One of the biggest problems for newer players is when they bluff
they over bid or underbid and as a result more experienced players will catch
on and take advantage of new players by calling them out on their bluffs.
Bluffing requires a strong bid for the table depending on how the table is
playing but also one that doesn't demand a second look because it is outside
the boundaries of the table's bids. Often times when players try to bluff
it looks as though they are "trying to buy the pot" and by that I mean
their bluffs look as they are just trying to throw money at the table to scare
off other players. However putting down an amount that is too small may suggest
to another player you have a weak hand, which they in turn may try to bluff
or beat you out of. It's a very delicate process with which normal bidding
structure can help you determine how much an accurate amount to buff with
is.
