Bluffing is one of the oldest tactics there is in poker and it’s also one of the most used. There are many different styles of bluffs and knowing which ones your opponent uses is crucial. Don’t start bluffing with the very first hand, play a few hands and observe the other players to get a feel for their particular style.

A skillful playing style is the most important attribute to gambling. But, when you combine that with a carefully executed bluff, your chances of winning increase drastically. Bluffing in itself is a skill and knowing how to do it correctly can give you that winning edge.

Bluffing is just simply mannerisms and gestures that you make during a hand. Done in the correct way, you can easily make the other players believe that you either have a much better hand than you actually do, or that you have a much worse hand than you are holding.

While bluffing definitely gives you an advantage, never rely solely on bluffing your way to taking the pot. Bluffing, just like “Lady Luck” is only a small part of winning at any game of chance. There are different types of bluffs and knowing how to bluff and when to bluff can greatly increase your odds of winning.

Before you even decide to try to run a bluff, make sure that the pot is big enough to even try to bluff for. It’s perfectly fine to pull a bluff and rake in a some small pots, even small pots add up. But, if you’re placing all of your chips at risk for a small amount of money on the table, you could very well lost it all.

The most basic bluff is to call the bet or even raise the bet when you’re holding a weak hand. By doing this you will appear to have a much stronger hand that you actually do. If you a strong hand and want to make the other players think it’s weak, just call the bet and don’t raise. Used correctly, this bluff will encourage some of the players to fold their hands, or actually keep some in the game.

Always remember, that you’re probably not going to be the only one at the table that is bluffing. However, some players never bluff at all and if you can distinguish which ones don’t, it will be much easier to play against them. Other players will even try to bluff through the entire game.

You’ll soon learn that the very best poker players are those that only bluff now and then. These types of players are generally much harder to figure out than a player that bluffs continuously or one that doesn’t bluff at all. A player that just bluffs occasionally will keep the rest of the table guessing and if you’re just guessing whether they’re bluffing or not, you’ll end up being wrong a lot of the time.