Good Poker Strategy is a Good Bluff

The kind of skills required to play poker makes it one of the most interesting games ever invented by man. More than knowing basic card skills, the player employs a poker strategy that entails an ability to read a person like a book, a complete mastery at manipulating the actions of other players in the game and a dash of good stage acting. A poker player is the psychological warfare expert at the gaming table and the master intimidator and manipulator par excellent who plays on the fear, greed, anxiety and apprehension of his opponents to his advantage. Bluffing is an element of poker strategy that enables one to turn a weak hand into a winner.

Psychology is so much a part of the poker strategy of bluffing. The ability of a poker player to project the illusion of advantage that makes his opponents mistakenly believe in their own position of disadvantage carries that player to victory. In the same token, a player who is able to perceive through a bluff and recognize a bluffer's weak hand wins the pot.

By employing poker strategy such as a good bluff, the player with a weak hand can instill fear and anxiety in the hearts of his opponents who may be in a position of advantage and discourage them from challenging his claim to the pot. The successful bluff requires a good sense of timing and great theatrical skills to enable the bluffer to put up a poker face and a convincing front. At the same time, he should also be able to read the body language of his opponents to be able to know if he is being given a dose of his own bluffing medicine.

A player who employs the bluff in his poker strategy must have a good sense of timing. He must only use the bluff sparingly and only in times of great necessity, otherwise he loses credibility like the boy who cried wolf. He must have a killer instinct like a leopard waiting in the bushes that can feel the slightest vibrations of uncertainty in the hearts of his opponents and pounce on them for the kill in their moments of weakness.

By using his uncanny ability to almost read the cards of his opponents through their body language, the good poker player will create a fearsome reputation on the gaming table that will put him at a great advantage. Against such a player, lesser mortals with no effective poker strategy behind them at the gaming table will be deprived of the ability to think competitively to make rational and critical decisions.