Poker Tells

thanks

There appears to be no author listed for this article, http://www.cardschat.com/poker-tells-advantage.php,
in the Cards Chat Strategy Articles Section.

That would make the author CardsChat, correct?

So, does pulling part of a Cardschat article out and putting it in the threads count as quality? There seems to be a lot of crap posts today.

I like to shuffle my chips constantly when I'm playing a hand, helps me relax and think. I've read Caro's book along with articles such as this and playing in home games haven't been able to pick up a single tell. The problem is most people realize this and do the same thing regardless. Everyone knows the motto "weak means strong", but then are they using reverse psychology on you? Reverse reverse psychology? One of the easiest tells to pick up on is betting patterns, but that's not really a tell. The only real tell I've been able to pick up was the other day, where one person would pick up a $5 chip, think for a minute, then instead put in like 3 $1 chips. Every time I saw it I put in a re-raise and every time she laid her hand down. It was obvious she was trying to bluff, but realized she didn't want to put in that much in case someone had a hand. That's why IMO unless you are doing it to intentionally deceive, you should make all decisions before you do anything, and most of the time decide what to do in advance, including what to do if certain cards come on the turn and river, how you'll react to certain sized bets, etc. Sometimes something will surprise you (like you're holding TPTK and you see a bet, raise, re-raise. Originally you were planning on either slow-playing or raising to make sure you're good, but now you have to think about whether your hand is possibly even drawing practically dead to a set or something), you can make sure every action is intentional. If you don't think ahead, you are forced to think if there's a difficult decision, thus taking time to act. If you think ahead of time, you can either act quickly, or sit back and pretend to think to throw other people off.

It took me a while to get through the text block. But once I did, I found this helpful. I try to stay in the moment when I am playing and sometimes it is difficult for me to think ahead.
Thanks

And don't think I always follow my own advice . It's tough to do, but I'm convinced it's the best thing to do. I'll be on a draw and be seen counting the pot to see if I have odds, then of course everyone puts me on a draw and when I hit I make nothing. If I had calculated the pot size beforehand, I would know if I had sufficient odds to call and (although if you do this a lot people will catch on) you can sometimes count the pot to make everyone else think you're on a draw. Then when the suit doesn't hit yet you have the set, or when it does hit and you're able to bluff at it (careful that they don't have it, it's tough to bluff at a nut flush ), you get paid off. I'm still working on doing this but also keeping one step ahead keeps your head in the game instead of wandering. When someone's making a decision, you can decide what you'll do depending on what they do, as well as watching them for some kind of tell.

Good tip, thanks
cheers

Nick, any chance you could put the author of the article in there?

Thats why I don't play with my chips. Some people like to play with their chips as a way to show off and intimidate the opposition. But for those who DO play with their chips, keep on playing because I WILL pick up on your chip tells and use it against you.

I do the same thing no matter what (at least I hope I do). It helps calm me down and think.

i agree you should make up som kind if gameplan in every hand, but you have to adjsut that gameplan after how your opponents is playing, so i would rather study my opponents when they make a descision to try to figure out what they hold and what they are trying to accomplish, if you just focus on what u are going to do it is easy to miss tells that can be important for how you would play the hand

ive found that when they are still stacking their chips from a pot they won last hand and they bet they almost always have a monster