A Very Useful Poker Tell for Heads-up Play

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apokerplayer

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I wanted to share a story that I was originally going to post on my Reading Poker tells blog, but then I figured I’d share it here, with Cardschat’s permission. Love to hear thoughts on it or on similar situations anyone’s been in.


A very useful poker tell for heads-up play

I played a $60 tournament the other night and wound up chopping the pot with one other guy. While playing heads-up I noticed a pretty common tell that involved the length of time my opponent looked at his hole cards. It’s a fairly common pattern, one that I’ve written about in my book and on my blog, but I haven’t talked about how much more obvious it can be in heads-up situations.

The opponent in question was not terrible, but he was pretty nitty and passive. Before getting heads-up, I hadn’t gotten any good tell-related info on him. This was partly a factor of him being pretty good at being stoic and partly a factor of him playing hardly any hands. Also, he was sitting to my right the whole game, and I’m usually much more motivated to study the people directly behind me.

One of the more important tells I look for is how long players will look at their hole cards the first time they pick them up. The most common pattern is that a player will tend to stare for a couple seconds at bad or mediocre cards, but if he has a decent hand he will put them down more quickly. If he has a premium hand like AA, KK, QQ, or AK, it is very unlikely that he will look at them for more than an instant.

Why is this a common pattern? In my book I say that looking away quickly from a good hand is an instinct to hide something valuable from other people. I relate it to that scene in the movie Blood Diamond, when the African guy looks down and sees a huge diamond in the river and wants to obtain the diamond without letting people know that he’s seen it. What is his first reaction? His instinctual reaction is to look away quickly so that other people don’t notice the diamond. It’s a similar reaction to what an animal might do if it found food around a bunch of other hungry animals; look away quickly. Hope no one discovers the food.

But in this case the behavior that is more meaningful to study is the opposite; someone looking at bad cards for a longer than usual time. This behavior is more significant because many people can peek quickly at a wide range of cards, including bad cards, whereas you will seldom see a player stare for a couple seconds at good cards. In other words, a player might have, say, a 65% chance of having strong cards when he looks at his hole cards for a short period of time. But that same player could have a 90% chance of having a weak hand when he stares at his hole cards for two seconds. It’s more likely to be a significant behavior because it takes more time to perform.

Now this is obviously not true for everyone. Experienced players are very good at looking at their cards in a consistent, unreadable way. And I’ve talked to some players who tell me they are more likely to stare for a long time at their premium hands. (I don’t believe that’s a common pattern, though.) But the behavior I’ve described is a very meaningful tell for a lot of people. And when you notice a player who has this pattern, it doesn’t have to be extremely reliable for it to still be very useful information.

How is it used in practice? One example: if you know this tell is meaningful for a specific player, and you are considering making an aggressive blind-stealing raise pre-flop, you can feel much safer when you see this guy staring at his cards for a couple seconds. Whereas you would not feel confident stealing if you saw him quickly put his cards down after looking at them.

This is an especially powerful tell in tournaments because it’s a structure where you are forced to make aggressive raises and frequently must go all-in with mediocre cards. In these situations even a little bit of information goes a long way. (See my blog post about how picking up information from the person behind you can prevent you from making an ill-timed raise.)

With this guy I’m talking about, I did not have this information when we were playing with multiple players. As I said, he was pretty unreadable and not too active. When we got heads-up, we positioned our seats to be directly across the table from each other.

It was quickly obvious that although he didn’t have this tell so much when we had multiple players, he had it big-time when heads-up. The reason this tell can be much more obvious in heads-up play (or very short-handed play) is that there is no one beside a person to make him nervous. When this guy had people right beside him, he was more cagey about looking at his cards consistently and quickly, just in case someone might see the cards. When we got heads-up and he had more empty space around him, he was much more relaxed and this tell become more evident.

When he had bad or mediocre cards, he would lift them up pretty far off the table, and stare at them for a few seconds. When he performed this action there was, in my estimation, a 90% correlation with him folding to my pre-flop raise, regardless of what position we were in.

When he put his cards down quickly, I did not bother raising him unless I was willing to call a re-raise. It did not matter what he had when he was putting his cards down quickly, whether it was great cards or a hand like 9Ts that he was excited about seeing. The point is; if I have so much great information that he is weak when he stares at his hole cards for a couple seconds, I can just wait for those spots to steal from him pre-flop. With such a great tell, there is no reason to put myself in tough spots like raising him with AJs when he puts his cards down quickly. I can just choose my spots against him in those instances when he has shown weakness.

This can go the other way, too. In spots when I’ve played with opponents with this tell, and I spot them putting their hole cards down quickly, I am much more likely to try to get value on a big pre-flop raise when I hold a really strong hand. For instance, if I have AA and I see this kind of opponent put his cards down quickly, I figure a bigger-than-pot-sized bet is more likely to get called.

I realize that for people not used to looking for such things, this tell sounds too good to be true. But it really can be that easy with some players. And I promise you if you start looking for it, you’ll see it. And you’ll be more likely to see it in short-handed or heads-up play, when people’s guards are down.
 
Debi

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Great post - being a live tournament player this is valuable information for me. (I read your book too - awesome stuff in there!)

For anyone who doesn't know this is Zach Elwood - the link in his post will take you to his website. His book has received awesome reviews from the poker community and I highly recommend it.
 
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dan abnormal

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Good stuff here, I have such a weakness in reading anyone, IM open to listening to advice like this. Keep posting
 
otari

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Interesting. Next time I'm heads up i'll have to keep this is mind.
 
MediaBLITZ

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Great post!

I guess I was one of those opposite guys and fortunately a buddy let me know about it. Apparently when I saw my good hands I would immediately start making my plan while looking at them instead of putting them back down first.
 
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Very interesting post. I will definitely look out for this one
 
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dan abnormal

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GUILTY OMG Im guilty of this, My big hands I look really quick and never look again, but the worse hands I find Im looking back consistantly, esp if Im on flush or straight draws, Im looking at my cards over and over again, mainly cause one time I thought I had a nut flush bet like I had the flush, got called shoved all in on river got called and flipped over two different colored cards (I was as surprised as the rest of the table) and all I could say was damn, those were suited the last time I looked

BTW I got your blog site bookmarked, what I read so far makes a ton of sense and since Im into live play more myself, i will be reading more of your blogs
 
darkassassin89

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Can any of this translate to online play? I have started timing my bets or folds instead of being all quick to click haha

I have noticed the better players all time out to a certain time to gain no reads every time they are in the hand... to my surprise, it is quite optimal play. It alows you actually think about the hand and you look solid all the time. So it is difficult to gain any edge on you from other players perspectives
 
Maid Marian

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Thank you for the very interesting observations for HU play.:)
 
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Hey, guys, it's me, Zach, who wrote this. I just wanted to jump in because it seems like some of you were getting off on a tangent talking about looking back at cards, and the length of time taken to bet or check. Those are entirely different tells from what I'm talking about in this post, and I just wanted to make sure that nobody was confusing all of these.

Just to be clear, in this post I'm talking only about that first initial look at the hole cards (assuming they are looking at the cards at the same time obviously), not about anything else. There are definitely other tells involving looking back at cards, and bet-timing tells, and I've written about such things. But I think it will help you if you categorize all of these things separately in your mind.
 
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Darkassassin, regarding bet-timing; you are right that it is a good strategy to have a balanced amount of time to act in. Acting too quickly in certain spots when you're strong is many players' biggest tell in this regard. That's why it helps, as you note, to try to balance those spots, even in no-brainer situations, with taking a little longer, so that observant players will not gain too much information from how long you take. (Though, in reality, at most tables and stakes, most players are not very good or observant, so you could argue that it's better to act as fast as possible to foster a more casual, relaxed atmosphere.)
 
starsmyle

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hey ...thanxs a bunch for the info and thinking about it....I do just that. A high pocket pair I put right down then go for chips. Going to have to switch that up now and watch others more closely. Might have to get that book even.
 
darkassassin89

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Thanks a ton zack!

I'm a Mtt player, and so far I just busted my roll ( playing cash as well and ran horrid )

I have been implementing some great strategies for going deep in MTTs ( online) and have been faring well reguardles of my hand. However due to. Bad runs. My premium all ins have been cracked left and right.

I am reading your blog and am very interested to know who things you do when you are on an intense downswing?
 
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I no longer play for a living; only did that for three years. I came to realize I wasn't cut out for such a lifestyle. Too many psychological shortcomings, to be honest.

On a related note, I was not great at handling downswings. One of my weaknesses and how I knew I probably wasn't cut out for full-time poker. It can be quite brutal and maddening. I think some people are just better suited at psychologically handling the variance of poker; some people are just born with more stoic temperaments. Not to say that the correct poker mindset can't be acquired through diligence and reinforcement, but it seems to me that some people just have more of an uphill fight than others.

As to strategies to fight the negative effects of a downswing, I'd say that the only thing that has worked for me is to continually remind myself that there can be a huge amount of variance in poker. The people who best succeed at poker are those who accept that variance with an open, objective heart, and this is not easy to do. It's the reason there are very few people who can play at the highest levels. When I am running (or playing) my worst, I try to remind myself that this internal pain I am feeling is the very fight that separates the best players from the good-but-not-great players. And if I want to have a shot at playing exceptionally, I must confront the often-painful nature of poker full-on in the hopes of rising above it.

Assuming one is a winning player, I think that eventually one will rise above the pains of normal variance. Although, as I've said, I think that for some people it is very difficult. I group myself in that group for whom it has been very difficult. But I have improved, which means I believe that I eventually would become as mentally strong as some others who are more naturally-gifted in that regard.

Hope that wasn't too rambling. I'm looking back now and it looks kind of crazy.
 
darkassassin89

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Not at all, if anything it helps me put myself in place of were I am at in my poker game...

I know I can play, I have seen me win, Hit FTs, go deep, I accept when I lose when I am behind, my problem, as with most people, is when I lose when I was 100% Right or dominating my vilians.

Do you feel this is purely psychological, for me, as a MTT play i know my swings are horrid, yet, I feel as tho when I am at a point in the game when the 1 hand you get yourself commited to would be the game changing hand and you would be set to hitting a FT and when varience HITS on THOSE paticular spots... is this just me noticing it bc of the situation? Am I over alylazing?

Example... ( this happend to me yesterday and was suppose to be the game changing hand )


9h turbo 1.5k Guarantee

the blinds are 250/500 average stack sizes are 7-8k and im on the button with KK around 5k

2 agro players have been swaping chips like teenage school girls who dont know when to stop spreading their legs open for one another. finally they both shove, now I have been watching them go at it like dogs and I finally catch a nice hand to crush them both and tripple up

AJ v AK v my KK

GREAT! they have hardly any chance! this is the game changing hand!

they both flop the ace, and im out...

Some say varience... I say WTH?!?!?!??!

The point of this mini bad beat brag is to gauge if I am over analyzing the situation bc I was mad to have lost.

If this would have happened at the beginning of the game, sure i would be heated as any player would, but its the fact that it was so close to the bubble and so close to cashing, and me trippling up would have me on a set course to the FT

So, thoughts? lol
 
JohnBoyWWFC

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I don't know why you're angry. That sounds like a standard spot. If that gets you mad, you have serious problems with tilt.
 
darkassassin89

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Yea, it happened again today.

Was in 1st place the entire game and 2 short stacks go all in and then AQ and AJ shove AI and i call with QQ

They both spike the ace again

haha
 
OzExorcist

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Any chance you could go a bit further into the psychology behind this tell, and talk about what causes this behaviour?

Personally, I'm pretty sure I do the opposite - I only take a quick look at bad cards because I know exactly what I'm going to do with them, whereas I catch myself looking much longer with a big hand because 1: I've got to think through all the things I've got to think through when I'm actually going to play the cards, and 2: a part of my brain wants to be reassured that I really do have that good of a hand before I act on it - I haven't misread A4 as AA or something. TBH I'm surprised to hear that most players do it the other way around...
 
A

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Darkassassin, hate to say it, but that does sound like a pretty standard spot. It will happen a lot in tournaments. I think if you play more tournaments you will find those spots are super common; that is one of the tough things about poker. Just in the past year, I've taken several beats where I was just a few places away from the money only to wind up getting beat by a lone Ace or whatever. It will happen a lot and you have to truly and fully accept that before you can really grow as a player.
 
A

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Any chance you could go a bit further into the psychology behind this tell, and talk about what causes this behaviour?

I've heard from a few people who say that they think they do the opposite to what I described: that they stare for a longer time at good cards, like you say you do.

Obviously I'm not saying all people do one thing; I have no doubt there are people who do the opposite. I can't say I've seen that pattern myself, though. I'm pretty sure what I've described is the much more common behavior. Of course, assuming a player is giving away information in the first place; I'm not saying many people have a very clear tell in this regard; but when they do, it can be quite evident.
 
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OzExorcist

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OK - horses for courses I guess.

On a side note, I notice on your blog you say Mike Caro's book on tells from 30 years ago is probably the best book out there on the subject, which isn't saying a lot.

I definitely agree that it's not saying a lot, but I was just wondering: does that mean you don't rate Joe Navarro's Read 'em and Reap?
 
darkassassin89

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Alright, I guess now that I know that my losing streaks happen more often than I was giving myself credit for, I can rest in peace knowing what I must do now to develop myself further, thanks guys for the help :)

back to square one... again... lol
 
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