Poker Aggression and Bluffing
If you read about books on playing tips and advices on poker you will definitely come across concepts such as being selective, aggressive and deceiving. When to become selective? How to become aggressive? What does it mean to be deceiving? As you play along you will find Poker not just a simple card combination game but rather psychological in nature.
There are two important concepts in Poker, which anyone who wants to become a professional player must master: the aggression tactics and the art of bluffing.
It is synonymous with basketball; aggression is to offense and bluffing is to defense. When you are on the offense side, you tend to intimidate your opponents. Similarly in a poker game, when you open the round or raise the pot you give a strong impression that you have a good hand. Otherwise, if your hand is not that good then you're practicing the art of bluffing.
Another aggressive action is when you put all-in your chips or money before going to the river or also known as fifth street. In poker jargon, the river or the fifth street refers to the final card in the dealer's poker hand or the cards on the poker table especially if you're playing Texas or Omaha Hold'em Poker.
If other players appear to be demoralized and decide to fold, can you really say you win the game? Maybe, that particular poker round, remember our objective is to play against less numbers of individuals, so it would be easier for us to win.
Anyway, let us put ourselves as the one being "threatened" if our hand has very slim chance of winning then we should probably fold or concede. However, if you believe it has a chance then we suggest you either call or check. Calling or checking is described as passive in gambler's terminology.
After your passive act, the dealer will reveal the flop, or three cards will be face up on the table. If you already formed a pair or three of a kind, it is a best hand, we can say. This time you could play the aggressor's role. However, if you want to get more chips then we suggest you apply a bluffing scheme either you check, raise, double or check-raise. Hoping your opponent will fall on your bait.
Honestly, no reading any article will guide you when to be aggressive or when to bluff in a poker game. Experience will be still your best teacher.
