A player bluffs when he/she is dealt a bad hand. You raise the pot (sometimes by a large amount) to make the other players think that you have a good hand and that they should fold. If no one at the table is raising the pot, even though you don't have a good hand, it may be a good time to pull off a bluff to 'steal the pot'.

It's more difficult to bluff when there are a lot of players at the table, and it's not a wise move unless you're confident that you can intimidate the rest of the players at the table into folding. With more players there is an increased chance that someone at your table may set a trap for you by slow playing a good hand.

Bluffing is more of an art form when playing at a casino as others can see your body language. Players often have 'tells' (small gestures or expressions) that indicate to other observant players the strength or weakness of their hand. The problem is that good players know about this and are not above faking these tells to send a signal to their opponents that doesn't agree with the hand they actually have. Thus they can fake their body language to send out the message that they have a great hand when bluffing.

On-line playing with its lack of face-to-face play makes bluffing a little more difficult as there are no physical tells to observe. However, even here there are player 'on-line tells' such as the speed with which a bet is called or a raise made, and other small observations that can be made depending on where you play.

You can't always win at poker especially by constantly bluffing sometimes it's in your best interest to simply fold. If you do attempt a bluff and get caught out use it to your advantage by 'acting' the same way when you have locked in a winning hand to see if you can't keep people calling, or trying to put you out by raising what they think is a bluff.

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