Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide.

How to bluff

In poker, to bluff is to bet or raise the betting aggressively while holding a hand that is likely to be inferior, hoping that all other players will fold and award you the pot without a showdown. (Occasionally, "bluff" is used in a broader sense to refer to representing any hand that is different from what the player actually has, whether that hand is stronger or weaker. This article discusses the usual sense of representing a stronger hand while holding a hopeless one.)

In games with multiple betting rounds, to bluff on one round with an inferior hand that might become a much better one by chance in a later round is often called a semi-bluff. For example, a player in a stud poker game with four spade-suited cards showing (but none among his downcards) on the penultimate round might raise, hoping that others believe he has a flush even though he does not. If his bluff fails and he is called, he still might be dealt a spade on the final card and win the showdown (or he might be dealt another non-spade and try his bluff again, in which case it is a pure bluff on the final round rather than a semi-bluff).

The bluff is an important part of the strategy of any poker game, though it will come into play more in some games than in others. For example, bluffs are much stronger in pot-limit and no-limit games, because your opponent will have worse pot odds, in addition to the threat of larger bets in future betting rounds if there are any. Bluffing is also uncommon in Omaha, because it's often likely that if you don't have the hand you represent, your opponent does.

Strategy of bluffing

Do not be predictable. If you always bluff in certain situations, your opponents will figure this out and start calling more. If you never bluff, they will figure that out too and stop calling your non-bluff bets, which is a bad thing—even though you might win the hand, you will fail to win the amount of their call. The exact ideal bluffing frequency in each game situation is a complicated exercise in game theory that you will not be able to solve at the table, so you may have to rely on rules of thumb, prior analysis, experience, and intuition. It also helps to have a randomizing device: for example, if your analysis or experience leads you to believe that you should bluff half of the time in a certain situation, use a device such as the color of the last card dealt, or the second hand on your watch, to make the choice.

Bluffs are more successful with fewer people in the pot. Against only one or two opponents, your chances are good that no one has a hand good enough to call. Against three or more opponents, at least one of them probably does, so bluffing is unlikely to succeed. There is also social pressure to "play sheriff": if three people act behind you, and the first two fold to your bluff, the last player will feel more obligated to call because the others will complain if he does not. If you have only one opponent, he will not have that problem.

Bluff much less in high-low split games—some very weak hands will call hoping for half the pot. In some games such as Omaha high-low, you would not be giving up much advantage if you never bluffed at all.

Opponents will call or fold to a bluff based on their own hands more than based on their perception of yours (even though this is not correct strategy). For example, if you are playing seven-card stud and are dealt an upcard that makes it look as though you may have a flush (or some other "scare card"), bluffing against someone who you think has three of a kind will likely fail, because that is a strong hand for the game and a player is unlikely to fold it even if he suspects it will not win. But bluffing against someone who probably has only a small pair is more likely to be successful, even if you have nothing that looks threatening about your own cards.

In games with many betting rounds, bluff in early rounds rather than late ones. Once other players have put a lot of money into the pot, they are less likely to give up (this tendency goes beyond the correct strategy of calling more with larger pots). One good play in such games is to "semi-bluff": betting a hand in an early round that probably is not the best, but that might become the best with a lucky future card. This play can win when either the bluff or the draw is successful.

On the last betting round, if you have a hand that might be good but that is not very strong, you are probably better off checking and then calling a bet by your opponent rather than bluffing. A player with a worse hand will probably not call if you bet, but your check might induce him to bluff, allowing your call to win more money. A player with a better hand than yours will almost certainly call, and may raise. You also do not need the protection of a bet. Value bet your strong hands, bluff with hands you are almost sure cannot win any other way, and check the ones in between.

A raise, and especially a check-raise, as a bluff is more psychologically intimidating than just opening. Of course it also risks more of your money and makes the pot bigger (and therefore more likely to be called), so it must be used with care.

Poker game play

The game of poker is played in hundreds of variations, but the following overview of game play applies to most of them.

Depending on the game rules, one or more players may be required to place an initial amount of money into the pot before the cards are dealt. These are called forced bets and come in three forms: antes, blinds, and bring-ins.

Like most card games, the dealer shuffles the deck of cards. The deck is then cut, and the appropriate number of cards are dealt face-down to the players. In a home game, the right to deal the cards typically rotates among the players clockwise, whose position is often marked by a button (any small item used as a marker, also called a buck). In a casino a "house" dealer handles the cards for each hand, but a button is still rotated among the players to determine the order of dealing and betting in some games.

After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds begins. Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. During a round of betting, there will always be a current bet amount, which is the total amount of money bet in this round by the player who bet last in this round. To keep better track of this, it is conventional for players to not place their bets directly into the pot (called splashing the pot), but rather place them in front of themselves toward the pot, until the betting round is over. When the round is over, the bets are then gathered into the pot.

After the first betting round is complete because every player called an equal amount, there may be more rounds in which more cards are dealt in various ways, followed by further rounds of betting (into the same central pot). At any time during the first or subsequent betting rounds, if one player makes a bet and all other players fold, the deal ends immediately, the single remaining player is awarded the pot, no cards are shown, no more rounds are dealt, and the next deal begins. This is what makes it possible to bluff.

At the end of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot. Some deals may not reach the showdown phase if all players drop out except one.

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