Bluffing

If you do not bluff, you can still win, but not win as much as your potentially able to. Bluffing opens up you game to other opportunities to take money from you opponents. Think about this scenario:

The board is K clubs, Q clubs and 3 spades, your holding the 10J clubs, giving you a straigt flush draw, you check to your opponent and he bets the pot, you call, the turn is a 2 hearts, you check and your opponent checks. At this point you should realize that your opponent does not have much, why would he check the turn with such a draw heavy board if he actually had a hand, unless he was on a draw. The river brings a 8 diamonds, missing all draws. The play here is to BET, even though you missed your straight flush and you only have J high, a bet here represents a hand, and your oppenend has showed so much weakness so a BET here is the right thing to do.

Bluffing is all about tricking your opponents and representing something you dont have. The perfect bluff makes your oppenents think you have something you don't, as the great Houdini once called it you must use "Misdirection"