An Effective Poker Bluff at Flop Play

An effective poker bluff at flop play is needful once in a while. It's not a good strategy to be always doing but sometimes we need to do such bluffs even with average hands to steal the pot. Here's an example of how to play a poker bluff at flop play.

Let's say we hold K spade and Q diamond and we raise pre-flop. There are two opponents remaining. Then the flop comes with A spade, 9 heart, and 5 diamond. The flop means nothing to us. There's not a flush draw even. And chances are the opponent also does not benefit from it. As a poker bluff at flop play we bet on it, though the flop has no use for us. With enough luck we might be able to steal the pot at that point.

If the opponent has suited K9 clubs and calls the usual thing to do is check and fold - the common and correct thing to do. But sometimes, we ought to break some rules. Depending on the way we size up opponents, we may sometimes use a poker bluff at flop play again at this point to goad them to raise. And we don't want them just calling our bluff. We want them to raise us.

Hence, we punish opponents who just call our poker bluff at flop play using only their second best hand. We bet until the play reaches the river. We should never allow people to call our bets or poker bluff at flop play with their inferior hands. We may also choose to slow play with this flop, and say, we have an A diamond and a 9 diamond. We use the same poker bluff at flop play and pursue calling opponents with bets until they raise. They need to see their need of seeing where they are in the hand.

At the river when we have the card we want for a winning hand we should continue to bet. However, if the card we need doesn't turn up by then, sometimes we should pursue betting instead of check-folding. Common sense in poker would dictate that we check-fold. But sometimes we ought to take risks and try a poker bluff at flop play or river play.

When we have the right situation (few players in the hand) we may try a poker bluff at flop play and perhaps steal the pot earlier in the game. But remember to do this only periodically.