After you’ve been at the table for a sufficient amount of time, your opponents will develop an opinion of your play and it will affect how they play against you. Before attempting a bluff, consider what your opponent might think about your play. If you’ve played a lot of hands and you have played them aggressively by betting and raising a lot, then your opponent will give you less credit for a big hand. You can’t have a monster (great hand) every time and they will want to start calling your bets because they will believe you’re bluffing most of the time. Whether you have had a streak of monster hands or not, your opponent will naturally think that you are a loose-aggressive player and will call more of your bets.

If you have not played many hands and you have been calling instead of raising, then you should get more respect from your opponents and can attempt a few more bluffs until your table image changes.

Before you start getting too advanced in your analysis, know which opponents are even paying attention. You will often find yourself at a table with opponents that are watching television, participating in conversations or just not paying attention to anything except for their own cards.

Sell Your Hand

The way you play your hand will either convince your opponent to fold or it will create suspicions and will get them to call you. The interesting aspect of selling your hand is that you may play your bluffing hand exactly the way you would play a monster hand, but it all depends on how your opponent believes that you would play a monster hand. If you play your hand differently than they think you would play a good hand, then they will be more likely to call you. The best way to sell your hand is to pay close attention to how they play their monsters. If they always slowplay big hands early in the hand, then they will be less likely to believe that you have a monster if you bet strong early in the hand.

Play your hand the way you think your opponent would play a monster hand in your position. They will be more apt to believe you and fold to your bluff. Many times, you’ll find yourself in the late stages of a hand when you start to consider a bluff. Before you impulsively bet a lot of chips, think about how you have played the hand up until now and think about whether your opponent will be sold on the idea that you have a big hand instead of a drawing hand that missed.

Coordinated Community Cards Change the Dynamics of the Hand

When the community cards are highly coordinated (close in rank or several cards of the same suit) and there are more cards to come, it can change the psychological aspect of the hand significantly. On one hand, your opponent will be more likely to think that you have a good hand because there are many quality hands possible on coordinated boards. However, they may also be more likely to believe that you are semi-bluffing (bluffing with a drawing hand) (see Semi-bluffing) if there are more cards to come. Keep an eye on how your opponents play their hands with highly coordinated community cards so you’ll know whether they are more likely to fold or more likely to suspect a semi-bluff and call.

Bluffing when there is a coordinated board and there are no more cards to come will be scarier to your opponent, but of course there is a better chance that they have a good hand as well. If you have been the one calling bets rather than making the bets and the river card looks like it helps many drawing hands, your bet will have a good chance of scaring your opponent. If you were calling bets and the river card doesn’t look like it helps any reasonable drawing hands, they will call your bets more often because you may just be trying to buy the pot after your drawing hand missed.

Don’t Let Your Opponent Get Pot-Committed

The more chips that your opponent puts into the pot, the less likely they are going to fold. Pay close attention to how many chips your opponent has left in order to determine when they have become pot-committed. The pressure on you opponent will be at its highest when your opponent still has a large stack that you can threaten them with a big bet.

Check out doubleas's book, Pressure Poker: Poker Strategy and Tools to Improve Your Game (also available in the PokerSavvy Shop)