Penny auctions are very much like poker in some respects. They both involve wagering money and having nerves of steel, but they are most alike in the psychological sense. Both games require you to out think your opponents in order to win, whether it be the pot or an auction item. When you can correctly guess what your opponent is thinking, you can use that information to force them to make a mistake, and this will allow you to profit.
Like poker, there are different playing (bidding) styles that exist in Online Penny Auctions. A popular bidding style is that of the bully. By playing this role, you are establishing a reputation for yourself that you can use at later points in your bidding career. By pushing people around in several auctions when you first are establishing yourself, you are building a reputation as someone who does not back down. This will force people to rethink their own strategies; if you won’t back down ever, they will lose a lot of bids. In the future, this can help you because these people who know of your reputation will not bid as hard against you, if they bid at all. This is a costly style, just like playing and raising every hand in poker can be costly, but when you start to reap the benefits of this style, it will pay off quickly with more won auctions and more savings realized. You want to make sure that you do not lose too much money with this method right away, however, or you will be forced out of the game, just like an overly aggressive player in poker will be.