Poker, especially online poker, is designed for the aggressive player. It’s impossible – mathematically unlikely, rather – to become a winning player without adopting a tight strategy pre-flop, but, when deciding to play a hand, playing it powerfully and aggressively. Bluffing is a crucial part of this style. Poker is a game of infinite scenarios, however, and although aggressiveness is generally the profitable attitude, there are times when it pays to adopt a more conservative approach. It would be all too easy if aggressiveness always ruled the day.

Here are some general rules for when to shift into ramming speed with bets and bluffs, and when to scale it back. These situations are constantly shifting in accordance with the tendencies of the opponents. Play game With the right poker strategies.

A general rule of thumb when you play poker is that, in a $2-$4 ring game of no-limit Texas Holdem … if the table is tight (that is to say, if the other players are being very timid about their bets, betting less than half-the-pot) it pays to punish those players for showing weakness. Raising, bluffing and semi-bluffing become money-making plays. Timid players who will raise, say, 3x the big blind before entering a pot but then do not continuation-bet, or are content to check the pot to the end, can be bullied. Once in a while they will get frustrated enough to call a bluff, but not enough to discourage bluffing as the mathematically-optimal play. For example, if you find that, 5 out of 6 times, a timid player will bet $20 but then fold to a $60 raise, you will ultimately only cost your self $60 (the one bet that he calls) to win $100! (the five times your bluff is successful 5×20).

In contrast, at a lower-limit table, say 25c-50c blinds, or perhaps a $5 buy-in poker tournament, people will RARELY FOLD to bluffs. At the lower limits there are too many calling-stations who simply refuse to believe that their hands are beaten. It behooves a profitable player, at these tables, to simply wait for premium hands and push them hard when in a big pot. Simple and boring, true, just waiting to hit a set and then betting big with it … but at this level there are many players who will stubbornly pay it off.

All in all, careful observation of one’s opponents is the best method of determining which of them are bluffable.