Now on to bluffing
There are two main bluffs in poker: A Pure Bluff “AKA” Stone-Cold bluff, : Your hand has little or no chance of improving.
And The semi-bluff: To bluff on one round with an inferior or drawing hand that might improve in a later round.
Without the bluff, poker would not be poker, It is the ultimate deception. One of the greatest feelings you can get from poker derives from taking down a huge pot that your opponent should have won.
You should not enter a hand with the intention of bluffing. You should only bluff if you are confident that you can win the pot based on the way your opponents have been playing up to that point in the hand.
So let’s move to position for bluffing, if unsure on position please see The Juicee Position (Why It Matters)
Position is a topic too important to ignore, as it goes hand in hand with bluffing and aggression. Thus, adding a bluffing game on top of your position game is absolutely critical. Bluffing will usually take place when you are close to the button or last to act. Because you are in the advantageous situation to see all the action before the action is on you.
The hardest part about bluffing is knowing when to really dial up the aggression and when to slam your foot on the brakes. Trying to push over an opponent with a monster hand, or standing down to an opponent with a weak hand are the two “worst” mistakes to make while bluffing, Because they’ll cost you the most money. This is why you want to try and analyze exactly what your opponents may be holding that they’re still in the hand with you.
Look at what is on the board and try to figure out what hand your opponents would call you with. Are they loose enough to call that inside straight draw or call with bottom pair? Are they predictable players that only call top pair? But most important, are they weak enough to call the flop and fold the turn? The mistake that most aggressive players make is they don’t try to understand their opponents, they just want to bully them. Your decision to continue should be a smart one, You can keep bullying if you have a good chance, but otherwise, give up. Ok. There was only one opponent left on the river. You were sure they were going to fold, so you bet it out. The first thing that goes through your head at this moment is: How on Earth did they call that?
You can actually turn this into a good spin. Now some people see that you are capable of bluffing hard, They can often think you are bluffing when you have the nuts. This adds to your arsenal. The harder you are to predict or read, the better your chances of winning or making the money are with good play.
Optimal bluffing frequency!
If a player bluffs too infrequently, observant opponents will recognize that the player is betting for value and will call with very strong hands or with drawing hands only when they are receiving favorable pot odds. If a player bluffs too frequently, observant opponents snap off their bluffs by calling or re-raising. Occasional bluffing disguises not just the hands a player is bluffing with, but also their legitimate hands that opponents may think they may be bluffing with. The optimal bluffing strategy is to bluff in such a way that the chances against your bluffing are identical to the pot odds your opponent is getting."
Optimal bluffing also requires that the bluffs must be performed in such a manner that opponents cannot tell when a player is bluffing or not.
To prevent bluffs from occurring in a predictable pattern, You may want to use a randomizing agent to determine whether to bluff.
Example: a player might use the colors of their hidden cards, the second hand on their watch, or some other unpredictable mechanism to determine whether to bluff.
Lets say I bet 1000, creating a 3000 pot, my opponent is getting 3-to-1 odds from the pot. Therefore my optimum strategy is to make the odds against my bluffing 3-to-1. Since the Villain will always bet with nut hands in this situation, I should bluff with villain’s “Weakest hand/bluffing range” 1/3 of the time in order to make the odds 3-to-1 against a bluff. Meaning I should know my opponents tendency & hand range.