Free Online Poker Bluffing and Semi-Bluff Game Winning Methods

"To bluff" means to bet or raise when you haven't the best hand, to bring your opponents to fold, even if they have a better hand. An essential skill that you should start to practice whether you play free poker or live room games.


Why you need to bluff?
Firstly it enables you to win with cards that are not so great.

Secondly, and I think more important, you bluff so you can win big pots when you do have the best hand.

So even bad failed bluffs can have a positive effect in that they may make other players call you when you actually have a strong hand.

But you must maintain the balance: if you bluff too much, your opponents will always call your bet and you will lose your money. if you never bluff, when you have good cards and raise the pot, your opponents fold and you win a small pot.

But if you can get it right and bluff with the right frequency, you will make your opponents unsure, and force bad decisions..

Ways to Improve Your Poker Bluffing Skills:
1) Take care when bluffing in limit games. On Limit tables you can't raise so much and your opponents can call your bet more easily that in a no limit Texas Holdem game.

2) Study the other players. If you are at a table with very good players, your chances to win are higher than a table with few.

This is true because strong players respect the bets of their opponents, and have the right discipline to fold their cards even with a medium hand.

The weak player, instead, doesn't understand that you are trying to bluff, or calls your bet just out of curiosity.

3) Try to build your reputation at the table. Make your opponents unsure of your moves at all times.

For example, you can start the tournament with a lot of bluffing, so your opponents will call you a lot and you can win big pots when you have the right cards.

Or you can start the tournament calling only with good cards (AK, AQ, high pairs). Later in advanced phases of the tournaments you can place some bluffs and have a good chance of winning the pot because your opponents cannot believe that you haven't got good cards.

4) Your position is decisive and in general it is good to call when you are in the last positions, near the dealer, because you have more information about your opponents.

5) Practice! Start of on free texas holdem poker sites to get the improve your skills in an environment that won't punish you financially.

5) Learn to do the semi bluff. In the semi bluff you bet hoping they will fold but your cards might be good enough to win the pot if the turn and river are good. This happens, for example, when you have 4/5 flush, or 4/5 straight, or in rare cases when you have Ace-high.

Look at a semi bluff example:
You have 9 and 10 of hearts and the flop is Q-hearts , 4-clubs and 7-hearts.

In this case you haven't got the best hand. Your opponent has 4 and 3 (very bad card preflop), he has more chances to win.

So you can try to make a semi-bluff , because you have the 4 hearts cards.You bet, and your opponent starts to think about what to do.

He has only a pair, and a very low one. He thinks: "I have few chances to win.. only a pair of 4s. He is betting, probably he has the Q.. or 7.. Uhm, let's try with another hand", and the fold comes.

And also if your opponent calls, the turn or the river can be a hearts, so you maintain good chances to win.

The Semi-bluff is also useful to contain losses.
For example, the situation is the same above ( You: 9h-10h , Flop Qh-4c-7h ), and you decide to bet.

If your opponent is weak, he’ll probably fold. But if your opponent has the Q, if you don't bet a little, he will probably bet a higher amount of chips, to let you fold, and you become unsure of what to do.

Call with 4/5 flush, or fold? However, to see the next card, you have to put in the pot more chips than if you bet for first.

If you bet a small amount of chips, your opponent probably just call, and you "buy" another card with few chips.

How to defend against a possible bluff?
There aren't many choices. You can accept the challenge, or you can fold.v For this reason the bluff and semi-bluff are a very powerful weapon.

My last suggestion: if you decide to accept the challenge, restrict yourself to call is rarely the good decision. You should raise, to let your opponent think: "Uhm, it's better to stay relaxed, my opponent has good card".

Bluffing and semi bluffing are skills that need lots of practice. If poker is a new game for you or if you've not done much bluffing before I advise you practice at first on free texas holdem poker sites like http://www.nopaypoker.com . The, as skills and bankroll grow you can move up to real money.

Free Online Poker Strategy for 1000 Player Poker Freerolls

This strategy is one I use to great effect (profit!) in both cash and free online poker freerolls with upto 1000 players involved. I will keep it short, since there are too many long and boring free texas holdem strategies that keep coming with the same info in another context.

The first hour

Freerolls are played by everyone, good players bad players, annoying people that just keep going all in and all in again.

The all in on every hand donk players are the ones to watch out for early on. Never take a risk in the beginning of even a free texas hold em tournament, because the players that don’t know the game or so will go all in with A 6 (not even suited) and it would be very sad if you have an As Ks and will be beaten by a A 6!

Just call when it's low when you have AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK (suited) KQ (suited) Note: You should never go all in with these cards in the pre-flop (bad beats are incredibly frustrating)

And very important; DO NOT BLUFF at this time.

Following the first hour

Now is the time that almost all of the bad players are gone, except for the lucky ones!

Here you are able to play more aggressive and attempt to steal the blinds (vital since the blinds increase and ante needs to be paid so what you can get by playing cards is too less to keep playing)

You may also introduce some new cards to you playable hands like:

• AA (all in when in late position and not a lot of people in the pot)
• 10 10
• KJ
• QQ
• AK
• KQ
• KK (same as AA)
• QJ
• AQ

When you're in the pot with a few players and they just check or make low bets/calls you can try to bluff.

Ensure that your stack is not less then the average stack, if it does go back to the "first hour strategy" and tighten up! (it is not a shame to pull back and change strategy a couple of times to create some confusion!)

Congratulations If everything went well you are now in the money, but you can't tell me that you'd like to quit now and earn some crappy cents, that’s just waste of your time since the most freerolls will take up to 4-5 hours. So concentrate!

This is the part where the "n00bs" are all gone so you play with some pokerfreaks so take care!

You can recognize the good players not at the quantity of chips they have but at their check, bet, call, raise and fold actions!

They're going to try to get to see the flop with as less chips as possible and fold most of the time (most common way to spot the good ones).

In order to be in the top 3 (other places won't pay that well) you need to be careful, but take some risks to! The hands you can play are the same as in the second part of the freeroll from the 77,88 and up.

When in late position attempt to steal the blinds, but not too often or you will be recognized as a bluffer!

So see you at the tables, good luck! When beginning I suggest starting with true free online poker freeroll events and working up from there as you improve.