Reading People

I played in my first live multi-table tournament yesterday. The only other live experience I have is playing the occasional Hold 'Em poker night with a good-sized group of friends and a cash game at Horseshoe Casino south of Chicago. Needless to say, I was both excited and nervous.

Being my first multi-table tournament, I used the event as a learning experience rather than holding myself to high expectations. I was able to pull off some of the things I love doing online: taking pots with big raises and crap cards, trapping an opponent, and patience paying off (at one point, I ended up with a full house and quadrupled my stack).

I didn't end up ITM, but to my surprise, I outlasted a good number of other players. There were obvious problems: nervousness about my first tournament had my hands trembling while pulling the pot into my stack, stupid betting mistakes, and, embarrassingly enough, folding when I could've just checked. D'oh!

All that aside, I'd really love some help on reading people. I'm reading a book by Phil Gordon. He notes that he often doesn't like looking at his hole cards until it's his action. His reasoning is that he watches everyone else pick up their cards first, hoping for some kind of information.

Being new to such a large tournament, I found it difficult to glance around at the other nine heads sitting at the table. I wanted to do it quickly in order to get a feel for who had what, but I didn't feel like I ever had enough time to pick up on anything.

After two or three levels, I decided that as a beginner, I'd play out the pre-flop without worrying too much about picking up on signs from others. I'd still try to find something, but didn't want to beat myself up about it. If I found myself getting into the flop, I'd try to read the smaller group of people as the flop hit the table.

Good/bad strategy for a beginner in live tourneys? Suggestions?

Netfilx has two good videos on reading people. One by Hellmuth and one by Annie Duke.

Don't overwhelm yourself with trying to read everybody at the table. Start with the players to your immediate left and right. Then worry about the loosest guy at the table. These are the people you're most likely to be playing pots with. If you are at the same table with the same people for a long time you can add others in but take it slow and make sure you have decent reads on the important players first.

WVHillbilly said:

Don't overwhelm yourself with trying to read everybody at the table. Start with the players to your immediate left and right. Then worry about the loosest guy at the table. These are the people you're most likely to be playing pots with. If you are at the same table with the same people for a long time you can add others in but take it slow and make sure you have decent reads on the important players first.

Click to expand...

+1 very good point.

i'm not sure if this is in phil's book or not. but watch the people on the flop not the cards. the cards will be there to look at later. but peoples reaction to the flop will only be there for a split second. one thing i noticed is to pay attention to players not in a hand too. if you see someone huffing and puffing over a QQ5 board you can rest assured he held a Q. if you also notice if the people in the pot saw this "tell" or not you might be able to use this to your advantage. I would pay close attention to the "hands" tells if they grab chips before its there turn to act. if the protect the hole cards(alot more than normal) after viewing them. i would try to read this book too it might help.

reads are important...thought i had this chick...i wasn't even sure she knew how to play...kill me

good for you, live is much fun heeh i whould go next month to play some cashtable also

try not to be nervous when you play, i know it was your first time playing live but just play your game like you always do when you play online and you have nothing to worry about, you'll be fine