But as you move up in stakes you’ll find yourself frequently against players who aren’t beginners  --  who are observant and who can be deceived with clever tactics.  Against them you need both to be deceptive and to see through their deception.  I’m going to write a few articles on just those matters.

Deception in poker comes in two varieties.  There is the deception that makes your hand look stronger than it really is.  We call that bluffing  --  but it includes moves called semi-bluffs and semi-demi-bluffs.  It also comes in the form of making your hand look weaker than it is.  That form of deception comes in a few varieties as well:  slowplaying,  check-raising and underbetting are the three best forms of it.  Let me explain how bluffing in all its forms works and then,  in another column,  I’ll cover the latter variety  --  the slowplaying and check-raising. In future columns I’ll also cover how to unveil the trickery of your opponents, seeing through their deception with observations of your own.

Bluffing is the act of attempting to win a pot by representing that your hand is stronger than it really is.  So,  for example,  if you have three suited cards exposed on the River but the last card failed to make your Flush,  but you bet anyway to convince your opponent that you have a Flush,  hoping that he will fold a hand that would otherwise beat you,  that’s a bluff.  It’s perhaps the quintessential poker move,  portrayed for decades in the movies and often the subject of great fascination and interest by the non-poker player.

In reality,  good bluffs rarely are so simple and bold as betting as if you have a Flush when you really have nothing.  This is especially true in 7 Card Stud,  with five betting rounds.  You see,  by the last betting round the pot in 7-Card Stud is usually so large that experienced players will call a final bet on the off-chance that you don’t have what you’re representing.  So it rarely makes sense to bluff “out of the blue,”  so to speak.

In fact,  in stud poker,  the best bluffs are usually ones that are made early in the betting,  when your opponents’ commitment to the hand is likely to be minimal. Stud players frequently bluff on Third Street,  for example,  when they are trying to represent that they have a pair.

Imagine that you are in a Stud poker game and have a split pair of 7s with a King kicker.  A player in front of you with an Ace exposed raises the bring-in.  You might very well fold with your pair,  concerned that his bet with the Ace means that he has a pair of Aces.  If he’s a tight player he may well get away with this move and win the antes.  In a game of $20/$40 or higher,  when the antes are a relatively large percentage of the initial bet,  this is a frequent move by the more experienced stud players,  eager as they are to win those antes.

It’s not reserved for Third Street alone,  of course.  You can occasionally get away with bluffs on later streets,  even the River sometimes.  And though it’s unlikely that your observant opponents will fold when they are ahead just because you bet on the River,  all you need to do is win a relatively small percent of the time with these bluffs for it to be worth your while in the long run.

Bluffing takes many forms in Stud.  Often it’s not just a simple matter of betting an otherwise losing hand.  Sometimes it’s overplaying a hand that has some value.  For example,  there are some players who will occasionally throw in a raise on the River if they suspect that their opponent might be bluffing but they can’t beat a bluff.  Here’s an example of that.

You were going for a Flush in a multi-way hand.  Every street was bet and called.  Three of you were in until the River.  On the River you didn’t catch your hand.  You just have an Ace high.  The player to your right,  a very aggressive player,  has been betting an Ace himself since Third Street.  A player after you has been calling with what you figure is another Flush draw.  On the River,  your opponent on your right bets again,  very quickly and aggressively  --  staring at you as he flings in his chips.  You read him for a bluff,  figuring he might be making one last desperate attempt to win a hand that started off as a pocket pair with an Ace kicker.

Normally,  you’d just call him down if you had a Premium Pair and hope that your instincts were correct.  But you can’t do that here.  Even though the pot is enormous because of the three-way action all the way until the River,  your hand won’t even beat a bluff.  Even if he just has Ace high,  you see that he is still higher than your Ace high since he has a second higher card that beats you.  So you know that if you call you will lose  --  not to mention what the player after you has.

You think about folding.  But the pot is huge,  easily 13 big bets.  You should raise!

Raise?  That’s right,  you should raise.  It’s the only way to win.  I’ve seen it work more than once.  If the third player caught his Flush,  you’re dead of course.  But with anything less than that he may well be convinced that you have him beat, since you’re raising the initial player.  He’ll figure that you wouldn’t make that move into a protected pot  [a “protected pot” is a pot that is protected by the likelihood that someone will call  --  the phrase is used to describe a pot that someone wouldn’t be likely to bluff at because there’s a third person in it, therefore making a bad target for a bluff].  Similarly,  the initial bettor would also view your raise as proof that you had made your hand.  If he had only the lowly pair he might fold as well.  Of course he might well call you,  but for 13 big bets, it’s a chance you’re willing to take,  since you only have to win one time in six to win money in the long run on that move.