Things to Note on Bluffing

In Poker Bluffs, there are sound reasons for which a player may have made a bluff raise before the buy which are as follows:

The player is having a run of luck, and therefore has his opponents frightened; That you (the person he is trying to bluff) are having a run of bad luck, and are losing a lot, and are therefore tending to be over-cautious; and that you have not been seeing his bets, but have been trusting him to have spoken the truth.

Of these, the third reason is by far the soundest, and indeed, forms the theme of the First Golden Rule of bluffing, viz: if an opponent fails to see a bet that you made when there was a possibility of his beating you, he should be bluffed at the very next opportunity.

A couple examples will make this clear:

First, let's say your opponent opens a Jackpot; you come in afterwards, drawing one card to a bobtail flush. This opponent buys three cards and chips; you fill your flush and double.

Your opponent is in a hand, and there is no other opponent behind him or between you playing, he must be doubled before the buy, whatever the hand.

These automatic doubles, as they may be called, are not primarily designed to gain an immediate profit.

Second, you open a Jackpot on three Aces. Your opponent, who could not open, draws one card. Two other players come in, drawing three cards each. You double, and none of the three players sees you.

There are no indications that you should stage on automatic bluff against any of these three because you have no reason to believe that any of them had openers.

Now let us consider how one can detect when an opponent is bluffing. By far, the most common example of this arises as follows:

A opens a jackpot and draws three cards. B comes in, drawing three cards. C and D, neither of whom could open, come in, drawing one card each.

A chips and B doubles. Now B is almost certain to be bluffing. He has two one-card buys after him made by players who must be going for flushes or straights.

Therefore, unless he has made a full house or fours, he is taking an absurd risk by doubling. So it simply boils down to which the greater probability: that he has made a full house or better, or that he is bluffing.

The latter is so very much more probable that it can always be assumed. Now suppose that you are C or D, and have failed to fill your bobtail.

Here, you have an opportunity of perpetrating one of the most beautiful coups in the game of Poker, namely, redoubling.

A is now in a very difficult position. Unless he is a good player, he will already be frightened by B's double. When he hears your redouble he is now convinced that he is beaten.

This one of the few cases in which even a bad player in A's position, who normally sees a hand as good as threes, will put them down and surrender the pot.

B, of course, although he may have a better hand than you since he drew three cards, will be so obsessed with the idea that his bluff has failed that he will never dream of seeing you.