Online Poker Success – You Don’t Need to Have the Best Hand To Win!
One of the reasons poker is such a great game is that it is about much more than who has the best hand. The people who are seated at a table are not just playing their own hand. They are also playing each other. That is to say, they are playing each other’s emotions; each other’s tendencies.
And there are different ways that plays out. Much of the time these techniques are successful because, as it turns out, one player is able to impose his or her will on another.
And all of this stuff is worth exploring, beginning with one method that is much celebrated but not always understood.
Online Poker Success – Bluffing Must Be Part Of Your Arsenal
We’re talking about bluffing, which is essentially representing that you have a strong hand, then taking it all the way to the end when you have something that is, well, not nearly as strong. In almost any motion picture that has featured poker as a backdrop, part of the game scenario has involved someone who is trying to bluff his way into a pot or, at the very least, someone who sits there contemplating a big decision and says, “I think you’re bluffing.” And of course, that contributes to the drama.
Bluffing is slightly exaggerated at the highest levels of play because the competitors are just too sharp to be taken in on a regular basis. In limit games, there is generally a “showdown,” though not always. You can get the table to fold sometimes on the river, in which case if you’re strong you can be successful.
Of course, depending on the setting, bluffing can have a bad connotation. Case in point – years ago, my mother used to play in a weekly poker game with her friends. None of the players was what you would consider a “sharpie” – my mom least of all. I asked her if she ever tried bluffing her way into a few pots here and there. She looked at me as if I were some sort of cat burglar. “Nobody bluffs in this game,” she said. I walked away thinking, “Gee, this is probably the kind of situation where it WOULD work on a regular basis.”
Online Poker Success – Bluffing With No Tells, Online
And that brings us to what you might expect when you are playing online. One of the things that goes hand in hand with a bluff is the concept of player “tells,” that is, some mannerism, expression or movement that might indicate what that player is holding, more or less. In an online game, you can’t see someone’s face or movements, obviously, but sometimes the technique they’re using is “telling.” And if a player is caught getting their bluff called, and loses, that is going to have a negative residual effect for the rest of the session. You can count on that.
Online Poker Success – Don’t Show Your Cards at the End!
Remember that you don’t have to turn your cards over at the end, so if you’re artful enough about it, no one will know they’ve been bluffed. After all, bluffing is something of a “con,” and the most effective con jobs are the ones where those who have been conned never know it.
That’s precisely the way YOU want it.
By Charles Jay
