Phil Hellmuth: Short Stack Strategy

Pot odds in Texas Holdem

Texas Holdem common mistakes

Texas Holdem (with Daniel Negreanu)

Reading Poker Players at the Turn & River

A Personal Example of Spotting a Poker Tell

There are a few poker tells that I've witnessed across several players on several different occasions. One amateur poker tell is to hit the flop big, yet force a sigh, mumble a curse word (that's meant to be heard), or some other ridiculously poor acting job, and then to bet on the flop. To Mike Caro's point, acting is an important factor in tells. These examples above would be false tells, obviously over-acted by an amateur player. The fake sigh, or faking disappointment, demonstrates that the opponent wants you to think he is weak, so when they bet, they want you to bite. So, act opposite to what they want if you don't have the cards to win, and fold out.

That's an example of a common, more generic tell, but I really try to hone in on actions specific to the player. It helps to know the player somewhat, I played in a NL home game this weekend (08/15/04), and had a couple of interesting hands against the same player, which may help demonstrate utilizing poker tells during a game.

First hand: My opponent was to my left. I'm in middle position. Blinds are $1-2, I think maybe there's one caller before it got to me, I raise the bet to $10 on my JJ. Opponent to my left calls, everyone else folds.

Flop comes Q 7 2 rainbow. I bet $15, my opponent raises me all-in $72.

So, I'm lookin at him, he's quiet, staring at the cards. This, in itself, doesn't mean much. I start asking him questions about why he wants one of us to go broke...no answer...I know that he's been drinking a lot. I asked him if that was his empty beer next to him... he answered that one.

Then I start staring at the pot, counting out my chips, I notice from the corner of my eye that he squirms a tiny bit and takes a slightly deeper breath (not acting). I interpret these signs to mean that he is uncomfortable with my consideration of calling his bet. This poker tell is the final piece of information that swayed me to make my decision.

I call his bet, he flips over 55, I win the pot.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Same opponent to my left, I'm the big blind, he opens raising the bet to $6. One caller (I think), then it's on me, I have the same hand JJ. I raise the bet to $15. Same opponent goes all-in, raises over $70 again. Everyone else folds. It's my decision again, basically same scenario but pre-flop.

But this time, my opponent's acting differently. He's more vocal, more natural and confident (not acting, in my opinion)... I take my time, he doesn't fidget. I show my cards, JJ, and fold. He flips over QQ.

So, in general terms, strong may be weak, weak may be strong (and are they acting?), but really you want to notice a change in a particular player's actions. In this case, strong was strong, but the important factor was being able to see the first hand played out and tie his actions to a weak hand. Now, I knew his actions were different, and his hand was different. We took a break after that hand, I went out for a smoke, one of the players was complementing me on that laydown, he asked me how I knew, I responded with "Did you see the difference?" (I meant in my opponents actions). I'm not sure he did, but I did, and it saved me a lot of money.

Typical Hands in Texas Holdem