Bluffing is a very important part of playing poker, but what is more important is the ability to spot a bluff here are five easy tips on ways to spot a player bluffing at the poker table.

1. Know your opponents

• Pay attention to see if they bluff in any hands or even if they talk about bluffing in previous hands
• Create a profile of each player at your poker table
• Classify your opponents as either a frequent bluffer, straight forward player or unpredictable player. You can do all this before you even play a hand against your opposition

2. Physical "tells"

• Look for fear or maybe you can sense it just from your opponent looking nervous
• Physical tells can be an unusual pattern or something irregular like a player stretching their arms or maybe itching their face, look for anything unusual

3. Your opponents mental state

• A losing poker player will go on "tilt" or become "steaming" more often
• Boredom, some players don't like being bored so they try to get in on the action more playing weaker hands
• Table image, some poker players play really tight conserving a tight image only to be setting up for a big bluff later on in the game, these players are hard to spot so pay attention when sitting at the tables

4. Hit or miss

• You think a player may either have the "nuts" or nothing at all "air"
• Try to call the "nut" hand if you find that it would be very difficult to make and the bets are not too big to call

5. Unusual betting patterns

• This is the best way to spot a bluff, if you notice that your opponent always checks a straight or flush and on the turn or river they bet big then this will increase the chance that the player is bluffing