Table Talk

What's your views on this? Do you do it yourself? Does it effect your game?

Personally, despite being quite a tight player, I like to throw in a bit of mind-games. I don't bluff often, but when I do, it's normally with the smallest of draws, very few outs and virtually nothing. I also don't mind a friendly chat with other people at the table.

People may think because I chat alot that they will want me out, but being a tight player, I'm going to be ahead most likely pre-flop. If I spike, it's money coming to daddy. If I don't, I still find with control, it's an easy pot to take away.

Well, that's a very brief bit about me regarding table talk. What's your views?

Good and bad the more you interact vocally and with body language the more you open yourself up for tells. On the other hand getting other people to interact at the table could get you information that could be helpful to you as well.

It cuts both ways. I wouldn't recomend a new player to be gabby, giving away too much information could be used against them, but once you have more than a little experiance and learned how to cotroll your shaking when your in a big hand then some interaction is a good idea.

Daniel Negraneu is a master at talking at the table, he squeezes information out of people that helps his game tremendously but that also is part of his natural character.

When table talking I think natural character means a lot, is this person sincere, forced or scared? Is this persons character agressive, passive, liar, honest, friendly or a dick? How does that correlate to their play? Are they acting or reacting? Is it show and tell or tell and show?

My personal character is rather passive, I'm not a big talker but I am not unfriendly. A whole lot depends on the table composition, I'm still new enough in live play that more often than not I will just observe more than participate. Let my plays do the talking for me, but then again there have been a few tables where it's just wide open and theres all kinds of conversation going on where it's practicly impossible not to participate.

You got to be careful of not having one of those sessions where you're losing but having a GREAT time! I hate having fun while losing, I'd rather be bored and win quite frankly.

It's situational sometimes you need too, sometimes you don't and this too is part of the game itself. Important to recognize, to adjust for and devlop with the rest of your game. It's real easy to get lazy and give off tells when table talking you have to remember that, getting others to react/interact may give you tells but you may giving off a few too. It's all part of the table image thing.