The Positional Bluff

In poker, position at the table is a powerful weapon. One of the main advantages is the ability to incorporate the positional bluff into your poker arsenal. You are at a huge advantage when you get to play hands in late position, because you get to see all the action in front of you before making a decision, so when the action gets to you your decision will be easier as you have gained more information then what your opponents have on you.

To a certain extent, the cards you play in late position don’t matter as much when as a player you use position to your advantage. If you are sitting down at a table which is full of weak tight players, you know they play a very straight forward game and will definitely let you know when they have a strong hand, so you want to exploit their games by using positional bluffing when ever the opportunity arises, even when you don’t hold a strong hand.

The whole point of bluffing is getting your opponent’s to fold a better hand, so put the pressure on your opponents and force them to have a strong hand if they want to continue. So when you are calling with 67s on the BTN and the flop comes 35T rainbow and it gets checked to you on the flop, make sure to bet the flop! In this particular hand you have a gutshot draw so technically you are semi-bluffing, but even if you didn’t have a draw it could be profitable to use positional bluffing when you can expect a fold. When the flop gets checked around to you, it’s likely that your opponents don’t have anything and you will take down the pot. When your opponents aren’t aggressive when they miss the flop, you want to play even more speculative hands because you have other ways to win the pot even when you don’t make a hand.

Keep in mind that good players will pickup on the fact that you are positional bluffing with a high frequency and may begin to play back at you, so you need to be aware of this and make adjustments if necessary. However, when you have position in the hand, even if they do check/call on the flop you have the initiative and it is very difficult for them to win the hand, so there isn’t much they can do the majority of the time anyway.

Don’t get carried away with positional bluffing, do it when you expect the flop not to have hit your opponent’s ranges, and when you think they perceive the flop to have hit your range, so the bet looks believable. The main aim when bluffing successfully is to tell the same story as if you really had a hand, so make the story believable! By including positional bluffing in your game it will definitely add a few more bb/100 to your win rate, and it all adds up.

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