The Art of Bluffing To Trap The Opposition and Steal the Pot
SETTING DISHONEST TRAPS! It’s true you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but can you make it pay at poker? That’s the real question. Dishonest traps (putting out “tells” that aren’t true) will work at the right table. If you play loose when you first join a table and then suddenly change gear when you land a nut hand that will work but once your cover is blown you’ll have to move on. In other words it will fool most of the people for a very short time. If you “lie” and set up a false persona in the chat box that will fool some of the people for a while. During live games, looking away immediately you have glanced at the flop, will normally be taken by a majority of players to mean you like what you see but you don’t want anyone to notice. A more experienced player will perform this “away glance” when he is holding nothing. He’ll be using reverse psychology in other words. This will fool some of the people all of the time. A fellow experienced player may however recognise it as a “sucker play” and be undeterred. In conclusion, choose your tactics to suit your impression of the players you’re up against. It’s no different from studying “the form” and judging the runners in a big race accordingly. Horses for courses.
AN UNEXPECTED HIGH! I wonder how many of you have noticed how your heart rate and excitement levels go up when you launch a big bluff? It’s a scientific fact that dopamine is released into the bloodstream during these kinds of episodes and this is a very addictive substance. I have noticed several players at my local poker club who bluff way too often and whenever I’ve mentioned it over a friendly drink after an evening’s session they’ve all confessed the same thing. “It makes me feel so Alive!” That statement of course is code for “it makes me feel high!” The Marbella poker club has a lot of very wealthy folk playing who can afford this kind of extravagant behaviour. If however you’ve noticed yourself behaving in this manner I’d recommend reining it in, unless you’re rich and don’t care.
POKER TIP OF THE DAY People are always asking me, “How can I improve my game?” What they really mean (in most cases) is, “How can I win more money?” There’s a difference. Improving your game requires working at all aspects of your own personality and learning all of the tricks of the trade to gain an edge. That’s a long term, enjoyable and entertaining ambition that will hopefully turn out to be profitable. “How can I win more money?” Now that’s an easier question to answer. The answer is to take the trouble to railbird tables and make sure you are playing against players who aren’t as good as you. Sometimes the obvious hides in plain site.
