If you want to be a winning poker player you’ve got to be deceptive. Simply waiting for the nuts and dumping all your chips in the middle will leave you broke in no time. You have to learn as many deceptive tactics as your brain can hold, and learn when and when not to use them. One of these deceptive tactics is the semi-bluff.

A semi-bluff is not like a regular bluff where your hand is worthless but you try to fake strength and steal the pot. With a semi-bluff you still have a hand of little or no value, but you have a possible draw that could improve your hand. When you make a semi-bluff you’re hoping for one of two possible profitable outcomes. Either your opponent will fold to your bet and give you the pot, or you will hit your draw giving you a winning hand.

Now that you know what a semi-bluff is, here’s how to implement it successfully. First you have to know a few things about your opponents. You don’t want to attempt a semi-bluff against too many opponents and you don’t want to attempt a semi-bluff against an incredibly loose opponent. Just like a regular bluff, a semi-bluff doesn’t play well against more than two or three opponents because it’s more likely that one of them will have a good hand. Against a loose player you’ll never be able to get them to lay down their hand with the bluff, leaving you relying solely on your draw.

When you do attempt a semi-bluff you’ll usually want to do it from a late position. With fewer players to act behind you will have more information on your opponent’s hands, which should lower the chances of one of them raising you. Be wary of players who like to check raise because they can easily bust your semi-bluff.

Most semi-bluffs are made with four cards to a flush or four cards to a straight. When making your semi-bluff try and bet enough so it will be an incorrect play for your opponent to bet according to pot odds. This way you should either win the pot after they correctly fold, or at least have them going against the odds if they call. Either way it should be profitable for you in the long run.

The cards have been dealt and after a round of betting the pot already has some meat to it. The flop comes down and your King-Jack has improved to two pair. After a couple of checks and a small bet it’s your turn to act. You make a move to your chips while crunching the numbers in your head. How much do you bet?

That’s always the tricky part when you’re playing No Limit Texas Holdem online. Whether you’re the first player to act out of the blinds or last off the button you always have to decide how much to bet. It’s not always that easy either. If you bet too small a player on a draw might hang around longer then they should only to hit that miracle card on the river. However, if you bet too big you’ll end up scaring away everyone and lose out on what could have been a big pot.

When you’re deciding how much to put into the middle you should keep two things in mind. The first is winning the pot, and the second is protecting your hand. To do both you should use the best tool at your disposal – implied odds. If you use implied odds correctly you should be able to get your opponent to fold or at least make a mistake if they decide to call.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have that two pair we mentioned up above. The turn card just hit and it was a lousy 2 providing you with no help. With one card to come you’re pretty sure you’re in the lead with your two pair, but there’s also a flush draw on the board that has been there since the flop. It’s down to you and one other player who you believe is looking for the flush on the river. You’re first to bet. How do you use this info to figure out the size of your bet?

Your flush-draw opponent has nine outs with one card to come. This gives him an 18 percent chance to make his flush, or 4.5 to 1 (100/18 -1). Let’s change that to 4 to 1 to make the calculations a little easier. The pot contains $200, so to put the screws to your opponent you must bet more than $50, because 200/50 = 4/1. So if you were to bet $60 the correct move for your opponent would be to fold. Even if he calls he’ll be making the wrong move. If he keeps this up (the wrong moves) you’ll end up busting him in the end.

That’s a question that has had poker players at one another’s throats since the game’s inception. Don’t attack me too violently when I say this, but there’s no definitive answer.

Which mode is better to you may depend on how much money you want to win while playing. Or, if you’re a horrible player, how much you want to lose. It’s just common sense that if you’re a bad poker player you’ll find Limit Texas Holdem Poker better than No Limit Texas Holdem Poker. At least in Limit the amount you can possibly lose on a single hand has a maximum limit. In No Limit Hold’em, you could lose your entire bankroll in one poorly played hand. At least in Limit Hold’em you should be able to play at least a few hands, as long as your bankroll is a good size when compared to the table limits.

The stakes aren’t the only thing that separates Limit and No Limit poker. In Hold’em, for example, Limit is much more about the strength of your hand than in No Limit. The reason for that is quite simple: In No Limit the ability to bet as many chips as you want at any time gives you the ability to bluff and push players around with a larger stack. In Limit, a player may have the rest of the table dominated in the chip count, but he still can only bet the same amount as any other player, and any bluff attempt is more likely to be called since they can only be double the previous bet.

Some poker players refer to Limit Poker as a card game, while No Limit Poker is a head game. Pot odds and hand percentages play a much bigger role in Limit Poker because you have to play your cards more than the player. In No Limit Poker you can even ignore your cards altogether sometimes, and still beat a player based on betting patterns and the ability to go over the top of him/her with a huge bet.

The answer to the question ‘which is better, No Limit or Limit Poker?’ has a different answer for different people. The answer probably depends upon what you prefer to play – the cards or the player.

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