We all know that when we bluff, it's because we want better hands to fold and take down that pot. But a lot of us aren't aware of the thought process of bluffing. Bluffing can be a good way to supplement your winnings, but it can be a HUGE leak if done improperly, especially at the micros.


Here's important factors when bluffing...

Reads
Fold equity at the micros is pretty low and we shouldn't assume we have much. Many players refuse to fold a hand that has any chance of winning, other players have a mindset where everyone is bluffing, others like to just keep bluff back in a spewtastic game of poker chicken.
Obviously these aren't good players to bluff. So we should choose to bluff players we have reads on, and know that they are able to fold. If you're going to bluff a player that you don't know, bluff with caution and with some equity.

Board Texture
When we choose to bluff, we obviously don't want calls. If the flop hits our opponents range hard and the board has a lot of draws (wet board) we aren't going to get the folds we need.
Q84r is a good board to bluff on, it's less likely anyone hit and there are no draws. A board of JT8tt isn't good to bluff on at all, it's literally a minefield filled with sets, 2Pairs, straights, flushdraws, and straightdraws.

Position
Should be self-explanatory for most, if you don't know the advantages of position you should probably do a bit of reading.
But basically, we gain a lot of extra info from being last to act. We can steal blinds when the blind players hardly defend. We can bluff at a pot when weakness is shown. We can raise when people's cbetting range is especially weak.

Our Perceived Range
Some micro players have begun to build a weak sense of ranges, putting someone on a range of obvious hands. So when we decide to bluff, we really want our want the hands we represent to make enough sense that it slaps them in the face. Like on the Q84r board above; AQ,KQ,QQ,KK,AA are often believable and obvious hands in our range, and so many players have no problem folding the majority of their junk hands.
Also note, that if we start bluffing too much, people are bound to take notice and adjust in their own way. It is up to you to notice this, and take into account what future actions are best to take.

Math
The breakeven % a bluff needs to succeed is equal to Bet/(Bet + Pot). Betting a higher % of the pot means that the bluff needs to succeed more often. When we size our bluffs we want it to make sense with our perceived range, as well as get them to fold the optimum amount. Here's a real simple graph that shows how often we need to our opponents to fold compared to how much we bet.

% Pot - Breakeven %
50% ---- 33.3%
66% ---- 39.8%
75% ---- 42.9%
90% ---- 47.4%
100% --- 50%

To increase the profits of your bluffing you can bluff when you have some kind of way to improve your hand. This can be with overcards, gutshot, backdoor nut draws. You can also semi-bluff with Flushdraws and Open Ended Straight Draws, these two have quite a bit more equity.
Backdoor draws, whether for a flushdraw or straight draw, give you a very small amount of equity BUT gives you a lot of good double barreling opportunities. I honestly don't double barrel unless I've picked up a draw or the turn card is a scare card. Double barreling shouldn't be done too often until you have a good handle on your opponents range.

Another option, DON'T BLUFF! lol I kid I kid. Good info Knight Position is KEY to bluffing, also having draws isn't bluffing, its semi bluffing

I WILL BLUFF AND YOU CANT STOP ME.

It's possible to win at the micros without bluffing, but you have to rely more on bumhunting, which is quite easy to do at the micros. Just go find the best tables, play against the worst players, in the right seats. But if you really want to maximize your profits, even a cautious bluff here and there can go far for your profits.

Honestly, I was having trouble making money. I started loosening up late position and adding in some bluffs and have really increased my profits lately.