For poker players who like to play honest, a streak of dry cards can be a disaster. When I started playing poker, I was pretty hesitant to bluff. If I didn’t have the cards, I figured that the poker online hand was lost. The problem with only playing your cards is that the blinds don’t care whether you’ve got the cards or not-you’ve got to pay them no matter what, and if you fold them enough, you could go broke without playing a single hand. Stealing blinds with a bluff is a great way to keep your stack alive, particularly at a tight casino table. Tight players are handy when you aren’t getting cards, because they’ll generally let you know what they’ve got by how they bet. Checking and calling are fairly reliable signs of weakness, and if a tight player isn’t particularly excited about his hand, there’s a decent chance that he’ll fold when he faces a raise before the flop. If you’re at a tight table and you’re in the middle of a streak of bad cards, watch your opponents. If you’re in a late position and all of your opponents have either folded or limped in, you might be able to buy the pot with a bet of 4-5 times the big blind and stay alive for a few more rounds.
