Bluffing at Low Limits

One of the most exciting moments in televised poker is watching a professional player run a huge bluff against a tough opponent. They might run a bluff on every street, making big bets on the flop, turn and river with nothing before finally getting their opponent to fold.

In these games, where great poker players are battling against each other, occasionally running these bluffs is critical to keeping opponents off-balance and properly disguising what a player is holding. In a low-stakes games, however, these sorts of bluffs are a recipe for disaster. Your opponents aren't going to fold often enough to make them profitable; if they're calling on the flop and turn, they're virtually guaranteed to call on the river too, even with pretty marginal holdings.

Of course, that's easy to exploit through value betting, but it does mean you'll have to tone down your bluffs to a great extent. Next time you play in a friendly game, or a $1/$2 table in a casino, try cutting out almost all of your bluffs -- you'll probably find that your results will rapidly improve!