There are some circumstances when even a veteran player’s bluff may fall flat whereas sometimes, even audacious bluffing makes considerable profits. Games of poker involving fewer opponents are good to use the bluff tactics as with lesser number of players required to fold to ensure a win, the chance of the bluff being exposed is lower. The betting pattern of the player who is bluffing and also that of his opponent are crucial factors in allowing the bluff player to return with a winning. Moreover, if the opponent is given to passive play or if he is willing to fold and not unnecessarily drag by himself starting to bluff, also ensures that the player’s bluff will not be called and he stands the chance to win the pot.

When someone seldom bluffs, it creates an image in the mind of the opponents that the player would not bet or raise if he did not have a superior hand or a realistic chance of improving his hand and get advantageous pot odds. However, if one frequently bluffs, his opponents can nullify this tactics by calling his hand or re-raising their own wager. So it is a tactical masterplan to employ in bluffing irregularly which never allows the opponents to formulate their own counter-tactics as they have no sure way of telling whether the bet and/or raise by the player has been done with a really good hand or with a weak hand coupled with bluffing. This judicious use of the bluffing gameplan is termed the optimal bluffing strategy which is based on a random pattern preventing opponents from finding out any set rule by which they can tell if bluffing has taken place.

An essential feature of check-raise play is that in limit games, the pot size does not have enough chance to grow. So if none of the players are willing to open the wager, then the raise can be maximum by one bet. However, if on checking by the player, someone else puts in the initial bet, then the player has the chance to raise in the current round and again raise later, thereby increasing pot size which in turn means the chance to in a bigger pot. In poker games where stakes are played for in a no limit manner, the size of bets are not restricted and often the player raises a bigger amount than was originally betted as opening. However, if no players opt to start he betting, the pot size does not grow as betting gets checked.

However, check-raise play is sometimes prohibited in some home games and in some casinos where the game is played for low stakes. Californian lowball also does not allow use of check-raise tactics by its players. A reason why this strategic play is considered aggressive and can effectively intimidate opponents is that when confronted with this kind of play, they are less likely to try to steal the pot. However, all experienced poker players do not recognize the efficacy of this style. This is because if a check-raise play bid is foiled, other players can call for free cards and thereby improve their hands. Also, using this tactics makes it obvious to the opponents that the player has a strong hand. However, a player intending to bluff he has a strong hand may pretend so by using check-raise play effectively.

Playing a spread limit poker game needs experience and skill, for rookie players make the mistake of betraying tells by predictably wagering highly with strong hands and low with weak hands. Interestingly, inducing opponents to fold by betting big does not happen often in spread limit games.

In the California spread variation of this limit game the range of betting is often very high like $3-100 or $10-1000 wit a condition that the maximum buy-in size matches the highest limit of the game. Popularly played in the casinos of California, this spread limit game is virtually played as no limit during the first hand.

The concept of limiting the number of raises in a given round of betting is a feature of almost all fixed limit poker games. This number, predetermined and made known to all players, vary from one casino house to another and the commonest form allows an initial wager followed by three or four raises. However, in some casinos where the pot is being contested one-to-one because all other players have folded, maximum raises rule does not apply and the two players are allowed continuous raise and re-raise till one goes all-in.

There are some variation of the full kill, such as the half kill and the double kill. Unlike the full kill, where the kill blind is double the size of the big blind, the concept of half kill is based on the fact that the kill blind is now 1.5 times the value of the big blind. This also calls for the betting limits of the hand to be adjusted accordingly. So, for a $30/$60 limit game, a half kill will be equal to $45 and the new betting limits become $45/$90. There are some situations when in a game both the full kill and the half kill are used. So winning consecutive pots may activate a half kill and when even the half kill pot is won, then a full kill is triggered. If the size of the pot is the cause of the kill getting activated then, the half kill size is normally 10 times the large bet value while the full kill size is 15 times.

An important variation of the kill game is the double kill where both the half and the full kill comes into play in a single poker game and a kill gets triggered while another kill is being played or when the full kill gets doubled. So for the $25/$50 limit game, the double kill happens when the pot value becomes $1000. Alternatively, a player with four back-to-back wins can activate the double kill. Double kill pots are huge as the betting limits may be three or four times the normal bet amount; for example, in a $30/$60 game limits become $90/$180 or $120/$240.

In some casinos, the rule specifies that a player to pay the kill blind must act last and only after the big blind player has acted and where the kill blind player is positioned in the game table is not taken into account. So, if there is a game being played among five players and the fifth player has the kill hand and the first player has the dealer button then the first betting round will see action from the fourth player first, followed by the dealer, followed by the second player with small blind, the third player with big blind and end with the fifth player with kill blind.

If the same player has to pay one of the blinds and also the kill blind, then any of three options are chosen. The player may thus only pay the kill blind and his stipulated blind is not paid; or he has to pay both his own blind and the killer blind in the same hand of play, in which case his own blind becomes dead and the kill blind is live and used to determine his bet amount making the game riskier for the next acting player; or the kill blind player is exempted from paying his scheduled blind till a later hand of play.