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Poker Preflop Mistakes Part 2 |
Preflop Mistakes Part II - Telecasting
Whenever I play poker one of the things that helps me calculate whether I call is whether the other players are "telecasting" their play before the action gets to them. It is neither a mathematical aspect nor a psychological aspect of the game, but it is a combination of both. When you learn the art of spotting telecasters you can determine what the chances of some players calling you are based on their reactions to their cards.
What is telecasting?Telecasting a play is when a player who holds a hand does something that makes it easy for you to tell what their next action will be. Some players will grab for 6 chips in a $3/$6 game preflop and are waiting for the action to get to them. When players do this, it is easy for other players like you to pick up on exactly what their next action will be. You can take advantage of this knowledge by adjusting your play accordingly.What can you do to take advantage of telecasting?The best advice I can give to take advantage of telecasting is when you get your cards before the flop, don't look at them right away. Pause for about 5-15 seconds and watch the other player's reactions to their cards before you make your action. You might feel like you are slowing the game up a little bit, but nobody really cares about a few extra seconds here and there. In a low limit game most players will hold their cards carelessly as if they have a weak hand, grab for the same amount as the big blind in chips if they are going to call, and cover their cards to protect them if they are thinking about raising. By doing this they are practically telling you what their next action is going to be!If the majority of the table is telecasting or you can look at your opponents and tell that most of them want to muck their cards, go ahead and raise with any of the playable hands I gave you in the chart of Preflop Mistakes Part I. I've even done it many times from the under the gun position and I'm a bulldog when it comes to playing poker. Pushing hard gives you an advantage, the other players fold more often. You will usually take the blinds without a fight, but if you get a caller I would suggest pushing him out. Players tend to call you on the flop about 60% of the time if they call you preflop, but if you fire on the turn they usually fold their hand if they don't catch or have at least a pair. Let's say you are in middle position and you have a telecaster behind you who is making the motion that he is going to raise. You have not looked at your cards yet because you are focusing on other people's reactions to their cards and watching them for telecasts of what their next play is going to be. After 10 seconds of watching the table and waiting for the action to get to you, you look down and see AA, a very powerful hand. Many people would flat out raise with this hand, but that is not the right play based on the information you now have. If you know that the players down the table is going to be raising, why not let him do the raising for you? The right play would be to call and let him raise. Once the action gets back to you, you can backraise (which is a smooth call then a reraise preflop) and make it 2 more bets for the people between you and the raiser to get into the hand. They have already put in 1 small bet, but if they are limping or have only a mediocre hand, they will fold it in the face of a backraise for 2 more bets. People with pairs 7's and higher and two face cards will generally call you, but that's good! Now all because of picking up on that one telecast, you have built a pot and eliminated limpers all at the same time. Telecasting can be used to protect your money as well. Lets say you are in the middle/late position with a hand like J10o and there are only a couple of callers. You see that that same guy is going to raise and he is behind you. Because you are playing tight and you now know that he is going to raise, you should muck your hand. You know that you will have to call 2 bets to see a flop and you have only a mediocre hand to play with. It's obvious you are beat preflop with that hand if there is going to be a raise so don't put any money in the pot if it's not worth it! Now all because of picking up on that player's telecast you will be saving yourself money, especially in the long run. What can you do to prevent yourself from being a telecaster?The best thing I can suggest to you is to not look at your cards until it is your turn to act. When you look at your cards before the action comes to you, you tend to change your posture or change the way you pay attention to the cards and the other players. Good players will pick up on this and will pick up on how you react to your cards… so don't look at them until it's your turn! What you should be most interested in is the other player's reactions to the cards when they are looking at them. The other players are usually not smart enough to know that they are giving you a huge amount of information by looking at their cards, which also gives you a huge advantage! But you are smart enough to pay attention to the other players and to not look at your cards until it is your turn and you will profit huge from this.My Final Words on TelecastingSo telecasting helps you to figure out what the other player's actions will be. Once you have learned enough about the players at your table and their habits, you can use the information to determine the chances that players that don't telecast will fold, call, or raise. If you can perfect the art of predicting the other player's cards by using telecasting, you can make a lot more money playing low limit poker games.<- Previous (Part 1) - Poker Preflop Mistakes Part 1 Return to the Poker Strategy Contents page. |
