Poker's End Game Is Bluffing

Beginning poker players or recreational poker players tend to play too loose of a range of starting hands and bluff too often. Then they study and gain experience and tighten up their starting hands and bluff a lot less often.

Then something strange happens. They move up to a level eventually where everyone plays very good and they have to bluff more often and loosen up their starting hand ranges.

If you play poker long enough, you will come full circle. The difference between an amateur and a professional bluff is the professional is playing the player and not the cards while the amateur is playing just his cards.

Advanced poker play is all about representing a specific hand in any given position and playing it as if you had those cards. This requires you to have good reads on what your opponents are representing. The key word here is representing. At advanced poker tables - your opponent can be playing the same bluffing game.

The trick to this high level bluffing is to know when the board has ruined your bluff or helped your opponents bluff.

Even bluffing has rules. If you are representing pocket AA and after the flop you put your heads up opponent on pocket KK and on the turn comes another K - and you haven't improved to trips or better - you should play accordingly and either fold or fold to a big re-raise.

By accordingly, you assume your opponent has put you on pocket AA and he knows that you have put him on pocket KK. If he plays like he has trip kings - you do not want to change what you are representing to pocket KK too because then your opponent will know you were bluffing the pocket AA.

If however the turn comes an A then your opponent will put you on trip Aces. This is good for your bluff!

The trick is to know what your opponent is representing on the flop and know what you are representing. Then play the board accordingly.

Easier said than done.

If you only play the cards then you are limited to what luck brings you. With expert bluffing though, you get to create whatever cards you want and create your own luck.

Of course, this is simply a play in your playbook. You cannot use this play all the time or it will quickly be discovered and won't work. But your opponents never know when you will get those lucky cards - so every once in a while you can represent lucky cards and as long as you don't go to showdown, who is to be the wiser?