GAMBLER'$ HANDBOOK

You are on the button, everyone folds to you. Raise to put pressure on the blinds. The blinds fold. Stealing the blinds is probably the most common bluff. You'll need to work out what sort of players you have in the blinds though. I find these days most BB will call if you only min raise, so expect to bet 3BB. Also, if you want to be more cautious wait until you have semi-strong hand. This is works best playing tight solid. So keep hammering the tight players if you get them in the blinds. When the finally call or re-raise you know they have a strong hand and can continue the hand knowing this.

The continuation bet is the next most common bluff. The continuation bet works like this; you were the raiser pre-flop and on the flop everyone checks back to you. Raise, everyone folds and you take the pot. This works often because to have just called your raise pre-flop they only had a semi-strong hand. Their check back to you on the flop again shows weakness, they didn't hit whatever they needed to. They might even suspect you don't have much either but in the face of continued aggression most of the time they will fold and wait for a better spot. This works best when you have position (the last to act).

The semi-bluff is when you don't have anything yet but you bet your draw. That is, you may have flopped the flush draw and you bet/raise. What you are looking to see is if anyone has any strength. If no-one else has anything then you can pick up the pot straight away. If on the other hand someone does call, then you can still draw out. Doyle Brunson's famous advice is to "always leave yourself outs". I think this is sound advice for bluffers. Always make sure there is someway to improve your hand if the bluff doesn't work. Over the long it does improve the expected value of your bluffs because sometimes you will be called but in some of those situations you will end up making the best hand anyway.

Attacking the busted draw. This one is a little more difficult but once you get better at recognising a player's cards by the way he has played on the flop and semi-difficult bluff you should aim to master early.

So there are four basic bluffs to get you started. Notice most of the time I havn't talked much about what hole cards you need because most the time the important thing is whether your opponent has anything! Good Luck!