Best Poker Face Tips & Tricks
Recently updated on September 18th, 2023
If you are a poker fanatic then you might have heard the term poker face before. And, while some players doubt whether it makes a difference, others feel that mastering a good poker face is crucial to the game. A poker face is one that has no facial expression thus hiding one’s true emotions or thoughts. Poker face is used as a bluffing technique in poker to make your opponents confused about your true status in the game. But, you must know when to bluff and your poker face must be convincing or else other players will be able to see right through you.
How to Bluff When Playing Poker
The secret to a successful bluff is knowing when to do so. Here are some of our favorite tips when it comes to bluffing in poker.
- Read the room. Have a look at your opponents and the number of chips they have. This will give you a fair idea of the kind of players you are going up against, and how much bluffing will be required.
- There’s no need to bluff on the first round because every player is likely to call during this round. Wait until the game gets competitive before you start pulling poker faces.
- Bluffing around big poker tables is hardly effective because the chances are slim that someone would even notice. When there are fewer participants the chances of someone falling for your bluff increases.
- Most players opt for an aggressive poker bluff. This asserts dominance and might make less experienced players feel threatened.
- To give a good poker face you must be able to hide your own poker tells, and easily be able to pick up on the tells of other players. A poker tell refers to a facial expression, a gesture, body language, or any pattern movements that may give away the strength of your hand. For example, if you always start blushing when you get good cards then other players might easily be able to pick that up and use it against you.
Types of Poker Bluffs
The two types of poker bluffs that we’ll be covering are called a semi-bluff and a stone-cold buff. Times, when you have an absolutely worthless hand, is when you’ll feel most tempted to bluff. This is exactly what we mean by stone-cold bluffing – bluffing on an absolutely worthless hand hoping that your opponent will fold. This is also the riskiest type of bluff that you can make because you are betting more money knowing that you don’t have a winning hand. So, if your opponent doesn’t fold, you lose all your money – more than what you would have lost if you didn’t choose to bluff in the first place.
A semi-bluff refers to bluffing on a hand that has some potential. This type of bluff may work if you are certain that the cards remaining in the pack could be useful to the hand you currently have. So, you don’t really have a winning combination but you are raising anyway because the cards in the pack have the potential to boost your hand.
How to Spot When Someone Else is Bluffing
Now, you may have mastered a good poker face, but, you should also be able to call other players on their bluffs. There are a few ways that you can tell if someone Is bluffing. We’ve already mentioned the first one where you train your eye to pick up on people’s tells.
How much your opponent bets in any given round is another great indicator of the strength of their hand. You can spot this even when playing poker online. So, if your opponent constantly bets the same amount and never rakes in any wins yet they continue to raise, they probably bluffing. As time goes by you will pick up on many other poker bluffs that players use to get ahead.
