First off and arguably most important, you need patience. Patience is necessary to win. You have to wait for good hands, you have to wait for your opponents to play, and you have to have the patience to wait when you simply do not have good cards and cannot play that hand.

You need perseverance as well. Do not give up and play your best game no matter what, no matter where you are playing.

Use psychology. Use it with yourself and your opponents. Look for their tells, remember how they played in past games.

Position is vital as well. You need to know your position at the table, and you need to know everyone else’s as well.

Last but most certainly not least, you need to practice. A lot.

Bluffing, especially, takes a lot of practice. Another step in perfecting it involves making a check when you are able to do so. It is preferably done either after the flop or after the turn. In the other round, your bet should be reasonable, not ostentatious. When you bet consistently, your opponents tend to believe that you have a solid hand. They view it as your attempt to get as many of their chips as you possibly can.

Remember, you have to be brave and ballsy to successfully carry out a great bluff, but it is possible.

The first thing you need to do, in fact, is make note of the number of players currently active in the hand. The fewer opponents you have, the better you will be able to bluff successfully. In fact, it is ideal to bluff when only one to two players are involved.

You need to be casually, especially when you are looking at your cards. Try not to show any emotions in your expression, but do not be outlandish about it. Do not show disappointment or anger if you have bad cards; do not so elation or excitement if you have good cards.