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Twitchy
Eyes and Flared Nostrils –
Reading Tells |
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I’m
going to let you in on a little secret here. If
you believe that watching for a twitchy eye or
a flared nostril is what poker is all about —
you’re wrong. Many newer poker players are
preoccupied with the notion that bluffing and
the ability to discover tells are what it’s
all about.
I often hear someone say something like, “Oh,
I could never be a good poker player. I have a
terrible poker face.” Or, “I wouldn’t
be very good at poker. I just can’t tell
a lie, so I wouldn’t be able to bluff with
a straight face.”
Well, if you believe that, this column should
be a pleasant awakening. While it is important
to avoid giving away too much information with
your body language, tell recognition is nowhere
near as essential as learning what reading a player
really means. What separates average and good
players from great ones is their hand-reading
ability; the skill of processing information that
you’ve gathered from your opponent in past
hands, and using that information in the current
hand. Picking up on your opponents’ betting
patterns and understanding what they are and aren’t
capable of doing, makes this much easier. So,
when you hear people talk about “reading
people,” what it really comes down to is
reading into your opponent’s mind what he
is thinking at the moment, and trying to figure
out how he would play various situations.
So don’t be paranoid of or obsessed with
tells. That’s not where your focus should
lie. Having said all this, I should probably point
out that what you say, or what you do with your
eyes and hands, can be giveaways to the strength
of your holding. Great players watch almost everything,
and many do have an innate ability to read body
language. You don’t ever want to dismiss
tells from your poker repertoire, but you just
might be better off putting less emphasis on their
importance.
And speaking of poker faces; one part of the face
that comes into play are the eyes, especially
when they are used effectively in the form of
a stare. In the real world, staring is considered
impolite, but at a poker table it’s an acceptable
tool.
Now, I shouldn’t be telling you this, but
I will anyway. Staring is simply a scare tactic
used by many pros to make you feel uncomfortable.
Think about it: When you make a bet (whether it’s
a bluff or not) and your opponent calls immediately,
it’s usually not intimidating. But what
if he takes ample time to stare you down and counts
out his chips making it look like he’s going
to raise? Now, that might make you sweat a bit,
especially if you are indeed bluffing! At the
very least you’ll be uncomfortable having
a guy stare at you for so long. It’s all
a ploy.
Most often, a player knows exactly what he’s
going to do within five seconds. You’ll
see it on the World Poker Tour telecasts quite
often, thanks to the hidden cameras. There was
a hand at the World Poker Open tournament in which
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot made a play
with the 5 2 . The player he had raised moved
all in, and David went into the tank (meaning
he took a substantial amount of time pondering
whether or not to call the bet)! Why did he do
this? After all, he is an experienced pro, and
knew full well that he wasn’t going to call
the all-in raise, so why waste all that time.
Devilfish wanted to scare him. He wanted him to
think that if he ever tried to bluff him, he would
have to face the full five-minute stare-down all
over again.
I have a simple rule when I’m being stared
down: The tougher my opponent, the less I’ll
do. If I believe I’m up against an average
or weak player, I may send out some false tells
and basically try to manipulate his decision in
my favor. I may even make a comment, it just depends
on what I think I need to do to manipulate his
mind. A great player can usually read through
that act, though, so you don’t want to give
him anything. If you give him nothing and he still
tells you he can “see through your soul,”
don’t sweat it; I assure you it’s
just another scare tactic.
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