| Published on June 26, 2008
How important is bluffing at a casino or poker game? Can a player actually win without bluffing? The important thing when you play poker is not only your own behaviour, but also the one of your rival.
You have to observe your opponents personality, his perception of your personality, his actions, his position and so on.
After all these factors become clear for the players, they can begin to play poker. There are to kinds of bluffing, one is the BIG bluff and than there is a small bluff. Where's the difference? Let's analyze the small bluff. A small bluff is when you missed completely the flop in a continuation bet. Sometimes the player is holding nothing but courage and that's how he makes your bluff meaningless by bluffing himself. Another kind of small bluff is called also a soft steal and it's when a player has for example the cards 7 and 4. After the big blind has checked something like K, A, K, before the flop, the player bets out and usually he takes the hand.
Let's come to the big bluff. The big bluff is more usual and happens more often, all-in shove for emphasis, after the river card, made in order to win a big pot. Of course there are more types of a big bluff.
There's a player who is known as Mr.Fearless, Carlos Mortenson, because every times he plays, he uses the big bluffs and wins a lot. Another big bluffer, who became quite famous recently, is Phil Ivey.