Bluffing is perhaps the most famous and most misunderstood aspect of poker. For a start, until the river you will rarely be on a pure bluff as your hand will have at least some way to improve (so technically you will be on a semi-bluff). On the river, you will always be either betting for value or as a bluff.

Bluffing pre-flop largely consists of stealing the blinds and making re-steals against other players who have already raised. However, even the term semi-bluff is barely applicable at this stage as so much of a hand’s value is defined by the flop.

Continuation betting

Most people know that ‘continuation bet’ on the flop after a pre-flop raise is a mathematically sound move. This is probably the most obvious and frequent of all bluffs in modern day poker. However, while it is usually correct to do so 80%-90% of the time, certain situations are more favourable than others. For example, a flop like Q-6-2 rainbow has so little texture that it is ideal. Meanwhile, on a draw heavy flop like 10-J-Q suited, you might just want to give up against some players if you miss.

The turn is the street that average players make the most mistakes on. Errors can range from giving up on hands too easily and allowing other players to bluff them or not betting their bigger hands strongly enough. If you play the turn aggressively with your big hands, your draws and a few bluffs, you will give opponents a hard time.

Most players fail to check-raise on the turn enough and by doing this sometimes with big draws and made hands, you will prevent your opponent from knowing whether you have a hand or not when you do check. Remember, if you routinely check the turn after continuation betting the flop with no hand, you will quickly find players exploiting this flaw to win the pot.

Likewise, if you check the turn and then try to bluff the river, good players will often pick you off. In most circumstances, the range of strong hands they would do this with is very small compared to those when they might try a last-ditch bluff attempt.