Why do rookies do so well at bluffing

The Rookie Bluff

One of the reasons that poker has remained such a popular game for so many years, drawing new fans from each and every successive generation, is that it's so unpredictable. There is something about this game - the way it calls upon players to use a combination of skill, tenacity, heart and sheer luck in order to succeed - that makes it an utterly unique form of competition. Each poker hand is like a miniature war. The outcome can never be totally determined until the final card has been turned and all the chips have fallen. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it?

In fact, there are a number of very specific psychological aspects of the game that seem to grab people’s attention on a wholesale basis. At the very top of this list I would have to include the art of bluffing. There is something so totally satisfying about pulling off a bluff (and, conversely so infuriating about being the victim of one) that people seem to want to learn everything they possibly can about this most elusive of all poker skills.

And yet, there is a certain peculiarity about bluffing that calls for a little bit of investigation. Given that it is one in the more advanced skills in a poker player's arsenal, it is natural to think that only the most experienced and seasoned of poker players would be effective at mounting a bluff in a high stakes game. But, as you must know if you have played to any significant degree, that is actually not the case. A simple, if perplexing, truth is that the best bluffers (or, at least, the most successful ones) are often rookies. How can this be?

In order to answer that conundrum, it is important to consider what exactly a player is forced to call upon within him- or herself in order to bluff. Basically, you have to deceive your mind into “not knowing” or least "not genuinely reacting to" the cards which are held in your sweaty hands. Thus, if you have an extremely strong starting hand, you must project through every fiber of your being that you’re actually holding nothing of value. Obviosuly, the reverse holds true when you have a weak starting hand - you must project to all of your opponents that you are sitting pretty with not a care in the world. Reverse psychology at its most pure.

Some rookie players are so good at bluffing in so many occurrences because they simply do not know enough about the game in the first place. Therefore, it is easier for them (indeed, in many cases, effortless) to put out a misleading signal about what they are holding. In this way, rookies are able to "bluff" without even trying. Now, it is certainly open for debate whether one can truly be called a true bluffer without having any conscious intent of doing so, but it cannot be denied that quite a few rookies seem to pull off this maneuver at a frustratingly high rate of frequency for us experienced players.