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Poker Tells

Poker Tells

I recently watched as a fiery game at LittlewoodsPoker.com progressed for about ten minutes while I contemplated joining. Heeding the advice of most pros, I believe that it's good practice to examine what you're potentially letting yourself in for.

During that time, one player won perhaps $300, while two others were blasted out of the water. The betting was fast and furious; the average pot size near to $50. I waited a while longer to examine the behaviour of my prospective opponents before taking the plunge. I was certainly in no hurry to add to this guy's stack...

Whether you play poker online, at home, in a club or a casino, there is much more to the game than just card values and ranking hands. Understanding the importance of table position, your opponent's style of play and self-discipline can give you a huge advantage, one which usually equates to profit.

One of the key factors is a 'tell', an occasionally unconscious indication by an opponent that reveals the strength of their hand or how they are likely to behave. In the game I was watching, it was obvious that the player with the stack of over $1,000 could read at least two of his opponents like a book.

If you understand the gesture another player makes before folding, it doesn't matter what cards you have, you can often win a pot quite easily. However, as you may expect, 'tells' come in a variety of forms, which means players must learn to read opponents and remember a few general rules.

These rules were first established when Mike Caro published "Caro's Book of Poker Tells", a book that helps readers distinguish between "tells from those who are unaware" and "tells from actors."

For example, one of the most common is what is called the "threat beat", a move designed to intimidate. As soon as you look likely to bet, the 'threat beat' opponent will pick up a huge pile of chips in the hope of scaring you off. What does that tell you? Similarly, players who constantly play with their chips or perform tricks with them are giving away valuable information, even if it's only that they have previous poker experience.

Caro also concluded that, with most players putting on an act, "weak means strong and vice versa." In other words, if a player acts weak, they have a strong hand and if they try to display strength, the opposite is true.

However, in addition to separating the 'actors' from the 'unaware', today's poker player also has to establish who has read the book, because guess what? There are those who will try to confuse observers with what are known as 'fake' or 'reverse' tells. The higher the table value, the more important it is to understand how sophisticated your opponents are by taking a long look at their habits, betting patterns, how quickly they bet and so on.

A newcomer who bets any two cards and calls with any pair is unlikely to be giving out reverse tells. Conversely, a pro who sits there looking nervous may be feeding you a line. When professional players talk about making a difficult read, they are describing an ability to sense extreme weakness or strength.

Not surprisingly, this sixth sense takes time to develop. Yet average players appreciate that one of the game's most fascinating features is what one pro calls "legalised deception." Apart from scooping a sizeable pot, there is no better feeling when playing poker than to put such deception to good use and to see right through an opponent's strategy, Earlier this year, I played in a tournament where I found myself frequently battling against a guy who had evidently read Caro's book, although it was apparent that he didn't think I had.

My opponent - let's call him the fat man - used a 'slow play' strategy, one where he was deliberately playing his hand weak, a move designed to convince everyone around the table that they had much stronger hands than he had. This induced several players to bet into his hand, the result frequently being a much larger pot.

The risk to 'slow playing' a hand is that you need a very good hand to pull it off. I soon realised that the fat man was using this strategy so regularly, he couldn't possibly have such strong hands every time. There was nothing inherently wrong with his style of play, especially as he adapted it from the word go, but ultimately it was his eye movement that gave him away.

This was his unconscious 'tell', an indication that revealed the strength of his hand or how he was likely to behave. Watching the eyes can be a good way to earn money when playing poker - provided your opponents are not wearing dark glasses.

When an opponent glances at someone or stares for an unusually long time, it can usually be interpreted as a sign of a bluff. However, the player who looks away is a much greater threat than one who follows the play, because he does not want to discourage his opponents to bet. The most telling sign that you're up against someone with a very powerful hand is when your opponent has a quick glance at his chips after checking his cards.

In my game, the fat man watched every aspect of play and rarely, if ever, checked the quantity of chips he had. From his long stares, which were probably meant to appear threatening, the windows of the fat man's soul told me he was bluffing. It took me a little while to establish this, but once I had done so, it was clear that the guy trying to look like Tony Soprano was actually playing cards like Julie Andrews.

As this little episode shows, an ability to interpret 'tells' can prove very profitable, regardless of the level at which you're playing. Poker players of all abilities should learn as many 'tells' as they can - but it can also pay to let your opponents underestimate you as you move in to scoop the pot. But that's another tell...

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