Concentrate on your opponents range when you bluff

Bluffing is a key part of any no limit Texas hold’em players arsenal of weapons but few players bluff successfully. When you bluff then you need to make sure that there is a very good chance that your opponent will fold. If there is very little chance that your opponent or opponents will fold then bluffing or semi-bluffing makes very little sense. For example let us say that it has been raised by a player in early position who has a proven history of playing very tightly pre-flop.

So it is fairly obvious that if you hold a speculative hand like a suited connector for example then re-raising as a bluff would be asking for trouble. This is because your opponent’s range of hands is so narrow that a large percentage of that range includes strong pre-flop hands. Any strong online poker player will look to bluff at selected times. For example they will wait until their opponent is very likely to be weak.

What they will not do is wait until their opponent is likely to be strong and then bluff in the expectation that their opponent will make a big fold. If you are playing in the lower stakes games then your opponents will call down more often because this is what lower stakes poker players do and is how they lose money. When they look to play big pots then they will usually have a big hand when they do so then their range will be very narrow thus making bluffing unprofitable.