Ah, bluffing. When you get it right, you feel like a master strategist; when you get it wrong, you feel like a doofus. Bluffing is lying, to put it plainly. To be more specific, bluffing is lying about the strength or weakness of your hand. There is a common school of poker strategy that teaches to play every good hand as if it were a bad one and every bad hand as if it were a good one. Now while that may be a bit too simplistic to be applied across the board, it speaks to a sound underlying principle — you can win with a good hand and you can win with a bad one; its all in how you play.

If youre playing No Limit poker especially youre going to need to know how to bluff (and as a bonus consequence, how to tell when others are bluffing). Bluffing is generally more effective in No Limit poker than in Limit poker because in Limit poker, you can only raise so much at once, and you can only raise so many times in each round of betting.

A player in a Limit poker game is much more inclined to call a bet or a raise with a mediocre hand than a player in a No Limit game, and the main reason why is the size of the bet or raise. In No Limit poker, you can call All In at any of your turns and set the whole table on tilt. Theres just no equivalent in Limit play.

Now to extend the conversation on bluffing to the online poker arena, there are far fewer methods of bluffing online than there are offline. The main way to bluff online is to place a humongous bet or raise (when your hand doesnt merit it, of course). You can try a bit of coffeehousing or blustering over the chat window, but if your opponents arent reading the chat window (or have that feature turned off) youre wasting your time.

One way to heighten the impact of a bluff is to do it quickly and confidently. Though they cant see your face while youre doing it, like they could if you really were sitting across the table from them, but they can gauge how long it took you to come up with this maneuver based on how look it took you to execute it.

Youll find 3 basic types of bluffs at the poker table, online or off:

The Stone Cold Bluff: Betting a huge amount right away with lousy cards; the choicest time to pull this is when youre the last player to act in that round of betting and not much action has happened yet;

The Semi-Bluff: Betting on a potentially winning hand that for now is worthless (such as four cards to a straight or a flush); its considered a bluff because its currently a garbage hand, but since it could turn into the nuts or the best hand possible at that time, its considered to be only a semi-bluff;

Representing the Flop: Bluffing in two parts – first, raise a small amount in the initial round of betting, making folks think you have the beginnings of an excellent hand, though it seems clear you need to pull something useful on the flop to make it happen; in this round, you raise just enough to get the majority of players at the table to fold. After the flop, then, go ahead and bet a ton (maybe even going so far as to go All-In) suggesting that you just pulled whatever cards you needed on the flop.

It takes nerves of steel to pull off a good bluff, but it takes even more than that to fold when you believe your opponent is bluffing. If your hand is weak, especially, then no matter how convinced you are that your opponent is trying to pull one over on you, you still want to walk away and save your chips for another hand. If you dont think you can win this round with the cards youve got, then by all means you can try bluffing. But if you sense youre being bluffed, make sure you can beat it before you go ahead and call it.

Some people that enjoy a good poker game at a buddies house on Saturday night also enjoy heading to a casino to play the game. A casino offers not only traditional poker games that are played at a table, but also offers video poker games. The biggest difference between table poker and video game poker is that the machine can be preset to have particular odds as to how often the player will win.

Of course, with a video poker game, there are buttons and virtual opponents as opposed to being able to hold your cards and look other players in the eye. The nice thing about video poker games, is that no matter what version of this popular pastime you enjoy the most, it is likely to be available. If you dont happen to have a favorite, are new to the game or just dont know all the rules, keep reading for some of the basics.

If you want to play five card stud on a video game, you will notice that the play is exactly the same as at the table. To start, every player is given a card with the face down as well as one card that is face up. The person that has the lowest card with the face up needs to make a bet of half of the minimum amount or a full bet to initiate the game. In a clockwise order players may either raise the opening bet, fold their cards, or call. Cards are dealt until each player has a total of five cards. Then the fourth card is dealt, and the lowest bet is raised to double the original bet. Finally, the fifth and final card is given to all the players face up, followed with the final round of betting.

In Caribbean Stud Poker, including on video poker games, each player wagers against the dealer and not against each other. To play, each person must pay an ante just to see their cards. Then, if allowed, players may bet one pound to enter the jackpot. Five cards are then dealt face down to every person that is playing as well as to the dealer, except the dealers fifth card is dealt face up. The players now have two options to choose from: they may either place a bet equal or larger than the original ante, or as in any poker game they may fold and withdraw from the current hand, forfeiting their ante.

After all the players have either bet or folded, the dealer then reveals the cards in his or her hand. In order to challenge a players hand, the dealers hand needs to have either an Ace and a King or better; if no player has this combination, the dealer will fold his hand and the ante is the only amount paid out, with the players bets being returned to them. If the dealer has an Ace and a King or better then the players cards and the dealers cards are shown and the best hand wins the pot.

A common error made by many novice (and a shockingly high amount of those who should know better) players is feeling the need to participate on every hand dealt. A successful player only plays 20-30% of dealt hands. Much like a professional baseball player who is able to sign a multimillion pound contract by maintaining a batting average of .300, the successful poker player knows that the majority of the time another player will walk away with the pot.

With that in mind it is important to play aggressively once you get a hand that you are confident in. Remember, 70% of the time other players are ready to fold in search of a hand that they think favors them! Be ready to force the weak players out with your aggressive bets. If you are confident you have the strongest hand in the game, raise the bet! The main reason for being aggressive is to have those with weak hands fold early on, as some tend to hang on looking for the miracle draw to win the hand. By forcing their hand early you are lowering the chance of those miracle hands and also ensuring you win the pot. It is always better to win a smaller pot than take a chance that another players draws that miracle hand late in the game.

Your table image is also very important. Build a strong table image by not bluffing early in your play. Bluffing early marks you as a bluffer and people will call your bluff 100% of the time. Play good cards and throw away junk cards, have the other players at the table see you are only playing strong hands. This sets up the opportunity for you to use a good bluff later in the game as you have conditioned the others players into thinking that when you raise you have the cards to win the hand.

Studying other players and their betting behavior is equally as important. It is too easy to get wrapped up in your own game and miss the tells the other players may be exhibiting. Knowing if they bet aggressively or typically call with a strong hand empowers you and your betting decisions.

Most important of all is know when to quit! You should always be sharp and focused when at the betting table. Fatigue leads to mental errors and ends up costing you money. Frustration is another sign that you are ready to call it a night, or at least take a break. Play smart and you will win smart.