Bluffing and Semibluffing in Online Poker

Bluffing is an important component of a balanced poker strategy – never bluff and your opponents will know you have a strong hand when you do bet, always bluff and you will be trapped into losing big pot before too long. This article looks at the thinking processes involved in bluffing and semi-bluffing in online poker.

We start by distinguishing the main types of bluff – explaining why a ‘semi-bluff’ is often the most profitable move. Keeping your bluffs credible in the context of the hand is then discussed. Finally, the number of opponents active in the hand and the ‘texture’ of the flop are then covered. 

The ‘pure bluff’ in poker is made when you have no chance of winning the hand at showdown, the only way you can win is to make your opponent fold. The ‘semi-bluff’ occurs when you have some possibility of winning later in the hand – an example would be a bluff when holding 4 cards to a flush. You may win the hand because your opponent folds, if they do not fold then you may still make the best hand to win the showdown if your flush gets completed.

The semi-bluff is the preferred bluffing move among poker experts. The combination of the ways of winning the hand can make this a profitable move even when individually the bluff and the chance of making your hand would not be profitable alone. Semi-bluffing also has a 3^rd way in which it can win a hand. To take the flush draw example, imagine instead that the board paired on the river – now you can represent trips by betting once again. Your previous semi-bluff has made the ‘pure bluff’ on the river more credible. 

Semi-bluffing has a downside, when you are last to act and have a drawing hand then this move may win the hand – however it also re-opens the betting, giving your opponent a chance to re-raise an amount that makes your draw unprofitable. If you know that an opponent is capable of this move, and also feel that they will pay off another bet those times you do make your flush, then checking behind from position to take a free card may be a better move.

Pure bluffs rely on representing a credible hand in the eyes of your opponents. Many less experienced players make a basic error with bluffing, their big bet would not make sense for the hand that they are representing. For example you raise before the flop which comes King-Two-Eight. You continuation bet and are called by an opponent in position. On the turn a second king comes. Here some players would consider a big bluff representing trip kings. However, a player who actually made this hand would be very unlikely to make an overly big bet – preferring to keep their opponent in the hand with a smaller raise. After all the opponent has already had 2 opportunities to raise and has not .yet done so. Since the other player showed no strength there is no reason to think that they would pay off a big bet at this point, therefore the bluff is not credible in this example.

The ideal number of opponents to bluff into is just one. As the number of opponent’s active in the hand increase, your chances of making everyone fold decrease. Once this gets to 3 opponents then a pure bluff will very rarely be a profitable move, someone will have a made hand or draw that is good enough to call you with.

The texture of the flop refers to the number of possible draws that are available to players in the hand. This is an important aspect of your bluffing success rate. Compare a flop of Queen-Three-Seven of 3 different suits to one of Ten-Jack-Three with 2 hearts. On the latter flop your opponents may have hit the flop or may have any combination of flush or straight draws, your chances of a bluff succeeding here are reduced. On the first flop it is less likely that an opponent has a draw, this is a much better flop to bluff on.

To summarize, bluffing and semi-bluffing in online poker involves creating a ‘credible’ story with your bets in the hand so far – and preferably having the backup of some outs in case you are called. The semi-bluff is generally preferred to the pure bluff as you have several ways to win the hand. Bluffing into as few opponents as possible and making sure that the texture of the flop is suitable will improve your overall success rates.