When trying to win a poker tournament, almost all pros will tell you, you need to win hands when you don’t have the cards. When you pull this off you are “making a move” in poker terms. Let’s take a look at some of the ways a player does this.

You can steal the blinds. You can fire twice at a pot with absolutely nothing. Whatever the type of bluff, you are trying to get your opponent to fold the better hand.

When you are the first to act, any raise with a weak hand is an attempt to steal the blinds. When the blinds get big, you will have no chance to win the tournament without stealing some of the blinds. This is the nature of tournament poker.

The check raise bluff is based on the strength of check raising. You’re in the big blind, with 78 of diamonds. You call a raise. The flop is AJ4 with no diamonds.

You check and he bets the pot. You come back with a pot sized, or more, re-raise. If he doesn’t fold, you will stop betting and cut your losses.

Another play is called the semi bluff. You look down to see KQ of hearts. You call a raise from an early position.

The flop comes J74 with two hearts. Your opponent raises the pot, representing a big hand, and discouraging drawing for the flush. This can be a good opportunity to push all in.

If he folds your bluff has worked. If you get called, you have outs. Any heart gives you flush. This is what a semi-bluff looks like.

The post oak bluff is quite different. You have been calling some moderate raises with a speculative hand. When the last card hits you know your only chance to win is to get a fold.

Now on the river you come out with a small raise. This raise is intended to induce a fold. The small bet is to convince your opponent that you have a huge hand, and have been slow playing it. You need to believe your opponent will think this way.

This is just a small sample of the types of plays that you need to use to keep building your stack. If you want to go deep in tournaments, you need to bluff. You must make moves like these to make chips with weak cards.