Archive for May, 2009
Winning Concept 8: Disguise Your Betting Actions
May 3rd, 2009
Tells are not the only one way you can tip off your hand. Being predictable in your betting patterns is just as bad. If you're too consistent in your play, not only you will know what you're going to do, but so will your opponents!
Poker is a game of deceipt. Your actions—betting, calling, and raising are a process in disguising your hand and creating doubts in your opponents minds as to the relative strength of your hand. One of the worst things you can do as a poker player is become predictable. If your opponents know that you always bet, call, fold, and raise in the same situations, your play would be like an open book—and they would feast upon you at the table.
If, every time you bet or raise, more opponents than usual drop out of the action, something may be amiss. You must find that "something" to protect your pots. Whether it may be a tell or a predict-able betting pattern, you have to fix your playing so you get the proper value for your bets.
If you're pegged as a player who plays only with good hands, or as one who raises every time a good hand is drawn, in no time at all, your opponents will pick up on this habit and adjust their play to take full advantage of the situation. For example, there are aggressive players who tip off good hands by suddenly playing meekly when their cards show strength. This unusual behavior often causes opponents to beware the quiet lion and drop out in marginal situations rather than meet the action.
To some degree, a good player will be predictable, and that is okay. There is always a degree of consistency in good players. But at the same time, unless you want to play like a complete nut so no one will ever know what you're doing—except losing—there has to be a certain degree of unpredictability in your play. Part of being a good poker player is varying your play enough so that opponents never know exactly what's up your sleeve.
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There is a whole science in poker devoted to the art of reading "tells," the inadvertant giving away of one's hand to opponents. Almost every player has tells, some better hidden than others. It is your job not only to seek out the tells from your opponents, but to protect against their finding yours.
There is a psychological and emotional reaction to every stimulus and event that occurs at a poker table, and a resultant physical expression of that reaction. The reaction can be expressed in some form of body language—like a player shifting in his seat, leaning forward, or scratching his head, or in a small facial expression like a twitch or tightening of the eyes, or perhaps as a faint grimace. The body is all movement—unless you're playing a carcass.
Learning to read tells is a master science. If you pay careful attention to the goings on at a poker table, you may occassionally be able to pick up signs that will clue you in to a player's hand or possible reaction to a situation. For example, some players lose interest every time they're about to fold. Oth-ers feign a loss of interest and appear distracted when they hold monster hands.
A typical tell in beginning games is a player grabbing his chips when he's going to call a bet, even though the action is several players in front of him. Another is a player who watches the action more closely when he knows that he will be participating in the betting. There are literally thousands of tells available for you to take advantage of—and guard against. Players may hold their cards differently or wear a different expression when they're going to fold. Other players can scarcely contain their excitement when they're dealt a big hand, and they may express this in all sorts of obvious mannerisms— obvious, that is, if you're paying attention.
Look for vocal patterns and tones, the playing of chips, the holding of cards, facial expressions, or where an opponent's eyes go (to his chip stack or an opponent's, to the pot subconsciously counting the money they hope to win, to other players' eyes, or at least to those of the one they fear most). Notice the way a player sits, whether he speaks more or less than normal, or louder or softer, or bets with more aggression (bluffing?) or more meekly, or tosses chips so that they barely make it into the pot (disguising strength?)
Stay alert and watch what's going on. The patterns will emerge. Finding and using these tells is worth lots of money to the astute player. Having prior information on a player's intentions or an actual tipping off of an opponent's strength or weakness after he makes a bet is, needless to say, a huge advantage in poker.
At the same time as you search out tells in your opponents, you must protect against their finding yours. Learn to develop a "poker face," so that when you've got the groceries, you can fill the bag.
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