Bluffing
Inducing Bluffs in Cash Games
Pinnacle Sports Poker has plenty of different types and levels of cash poker games to choose from, but the one thing you’ll find in almost all those games is aggression. Online cash poker games are naturally more aggressive than live games because the players need to bet in order to gain information from their opponents. Understanding this can improve your poker strategy and make you a better player.
Physical tells are a non-factor online, and forcing the action in a hand is the best way to find out what’s going on. All this aggression can create lots of opportunities for a good player to take advantage of players who try to steal pots.
One of the easiest ways to increase the pot size when you have a big hand is to induce aggressive poker players to bluff at you. You want to make sure that you have a good enough hand to call a bet, while maintaining an image that you have nothing in your hand.
Most players think that slow playing means checking it down every time it’s your turn to play, then hoping that an aggressive player in a later position takes a stab at the small pot. This will work periodically against an intermediate player, but the best way to induce a bluff is to make it look like you’re afraid of what your opponent is holding.
You do this by making small bets with your big hand on the early streets, only to abandon the betting on the turn or river. Let’s say you were in a hand and you made a pre-flop raise with a hand like K-K, and then bet half of the pot after a flop of undercards.
If you get a caller that you know is aggressive and likes to bet at weakness, you can take a free card on the turn. This makes it look like you missed, and your flop bet was just a continuation bet you hoped wouldn’t get called. If rags come on the turn and river, your opponent will often take a stab at the pot because you orphaned the pot on the later streets. Then you can make your raise and take down the pot.
Why not try out some of these skills in cash games available right now at Pinnacle Poker with 30% rakeback!
