Win Copies of New Poker Book - Reading Poker Tells

[The Mob]

Today we publish an excerpt from new poker book - Reading Poker Tells by Zachary Elwood. The excerpt focuses on verbal tells from players and things they say at the table.

We have 6 copies of this book to give away as prizes. All you have to do is post your favourite poker tell in this thread, post a tell you have noticed or picked up on someone or tell us an interesting poker tell story.

We'll then pick out the six winners and send you the books!

[dwh103]

My personal favourite, if facing a bet on the river and an opponent going into their shell - is to flirt with them. Tell them they have beautiful eyes or something pretty random etc, often gets some kind of response which I can then attempt to analyse. Has worked a couple of times!
_________________
My blog: http://thepokerlifeofdave.blogspot.com/

[ReggieK]

This tell applies to a fella I play with at the club, his name is spotty Shaun.
He's aged 20, has a face looking like one of Dominos finest, and is a smarmy git to boot
Anyway, about a year ago me and Ben were standing near the final table, we'd been knocked out in a bad beat type manner, and railed our pal Andrew who was tearing it up

I stood behind Andrew and first hand he was seat 1 (button)
He looked down at 44, there was a raise from early position, a call, Andrew called, and spotty Shaun called from the bb

Flop was A29, a blank for Andrew, first to act was spotty Shaun who checked, original raiser poker Peter put in a pot bet. Other caller Les folded, Andrew folded and this is where me and Ben saw spotty Shaun's feet wildly tapping under the table
He minimum raised poker Pete, who then shoved
Shaun called instantly with A9, top 2.
Pete had AK, no K and he was out
Ben turned to me and said "that slag spotty has a tell there mate"
I grinned and said "he has aint he pal? The zit faced buffoon"

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, I was on the final table and sitting there with AA.
I raise and only spotty Shaun calls
Flop is JJ9
I'm first to act and bung in a half pot bet
Shaun's eyes are bulging and he gets the raising chips out, I remember his tell and deliberately drop a chip so I can see under the table
His feet are flying like Elvis on a good night
I get up again and sigh and fold and say "these are no good are they spotty?", and show my AA
He blushes and turns over KJ and says "you should have put me all in"
I nod and grin and say "next time Pal"...

[barmybadger]

I played a nlh tourny a few years ago and was in a pot against a chap eating some chips. He had been quite active and taken down some pots recently with made hands all whilst chomping away.
After i fired a continuation bet on a AKx flop he checkraised all in and suddenly forgot about his dinner and sat motionless.
I was originally going to fold my rag king but after waiting 20 seconds or so he had still not m9ved a muscle so i made the call and he had absolutely nothing.
His rapid pulse and dripping sweat also helped
_________________
THMF 8 game champion 2010
twitter @barmybadger

[PokerWolf1]

This happened at a game I played in Sheffield on Sunday.

My and the missus had late regged for a £15 freezeout with 1 re-entry available. It seemed to be a pretty weak field with lots of old school ABC players but one player on my table had at least 4 times as many chips as anyone else. After playing some pots and watching his style I saw him playing all manner of things like raising J4 sooooted utg+1 and raising 9 3 off from the hijack.

I had noticed something though. It seemed that every time he raised something dubious he instantly turned round to grab his pint off the wheelie table and take a swig before placing it back. The only time I didn't notice him do this was where he raised AQ from the button and someone shoved only for him to knock out their A10 and when he 3 bet allin after a raise and 2 calls to show KK.

Anyway, after picking up A2 on the button and seeing 3 people call 400 before me I popped it up to 1600. He 3 bet from the BB for 5k and instantly went for his drink. Thinking about how hilarious the look on his face would be if I won this hand, and knowing I could re-enter, I called from my 22k stack. Flop 9 9 6. He instantly moved allin and AGAIN went for his drink.

I thought for a minute and pushed my chips over the line and flipped my A2.

"Really?!?" he said. He flipped over his K5 and the board ran out useless for him.
"Terrible call! How can you call? Absolutely horrible!"

I just smiled and said 'F**king funny though, right?"

He didn't seem to think so.


_________________
Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Run, live to fly, fly to live. aces high!
@PremierWanderer

[Rigsby]

my tell comes from southend $100 mtt freeze out

im sitting 3nd with 7 players left

look down at AK Suited so raise it up
gets round to the big blind who has simular chip stack, he leans back in chair stretches and puts arms behind his head and announces, im tired and ready to go home and shoves all in(been playing a good 6 hours)

i looked at him and said cheers for the telegram as i folded and tabled my AKs
He annoyingly slams down Aces

These guys must think us oldies are stoopid
_________________
"o8 is Medicine" Knassen

[The Reverend]

Rigsby wrote:
gets round to the big blind who has simular chip stack, he leans back in chair stretches and puts arms behind his head and announces, im tired and ready to go home and shoves all in(been playing a good 6 hours)

I love doing this as a false tell when bluffing. No idea if it's ever made any difference but always a good excuse for a sup of beer whilst you're at it.

[CaptainGee]

One I have used a couple of times is the all in shove, if the chips cross the line vs when you only verbally declare the all in.

Vanessa Selbst did this at a WSOP event, with two random cards she carefully moved her stack over the line, no caller. The next hand she had KK and declared all in, comfortably leaving the stack well alone (I won't waste the effort of moving chips and bringing them back again).

This has come in very useful in our local league, I first tell the player they remind me of Vanessa Selbst which generally gets a reaction then call/fold based on the movement (or lack of) of the chips supplemented by the reaction to my comparison of their play.

Hopefully no one from our league reads this post

[CaptainGee]

Just thought of a 2nd tell which I have exploited;

Player announces bet size, eg 1500, if they put in 1000 chip & 500 chip vs 15 x 100 chips. I try and look for patterns, if the 15 x 100 chip is out of the ordinary, I tend to view this as "I have bet a HUGE amount with 15 chips" and they are looking for a fold from their opponent.

If a river decision of fold vs call/raise is 50/50, betting with multiple chips would tend to sway me to call/raise for this reason.

[tjm8]

My fave story for a tell, was when I sat down at a Pub Poker event for the first time. I had been warned that the standard was dire, but it was a great laugh. I was also warned about a dear old lady called Margaret, who I saw driving up to the table on her mobility scooter with a pint of lager. He said, she chases every draw, is a station and also she struggles to read the board and often misreads hands.

This hand took place early on, I raise from mid position with TT and Margaret calls in the BB.

Flop T 6 2 rainbow.

Margaret checks, I bet, she calls

Turn K,

Margaret checks, I bet, she calls

River 8

Margaret, now looks at the board, then at her cards and looks puzzled for a few seconds (obvious she was trying to work out her hand).

She precedes to dip her head in direction of the T, then looked at the left card in her hand, then dip of the head as she looked at the 8 and so on

So I see her head dip 5 times in direction of the 5 cards and she did it in the order of T,9,8,7 and 6

She smiles and goes all in.

I laugh and open fold the TT, none of the table can believe I have folded top set.

Margaret slowly joins me in laughing and proudly says "he would of lost as I have the straight" and shows her hand to more gasps.

I just claimed it was a soul read

Also it was the only time I have actually enjoyed a bad beat

[Davy G]

I was playing live and check raised all-in with 22 on a AKQr board and the guy was looking for info so i took off one of my shoes and my sock and made a sock puppet and then got the sock puppet to call up my ex-girlfriend's mother to get her new phone number and then called her up to confirm that whenever i make a sock puppet to make a point i'm always telling the truth and he folded AK face up, that was quite elaborate.

[Puma]

We have a player in our pub league who likes to use a card guard. However his use of it is inconsistent. I've noticed that he will only drop it onto his cards after looking at them if it is a hand he wants to play. If it's a hand he's going to muck he won't bother with the card guard.
Used this info to my advantage several times when he's in the blinds

[Daniel]

A comon tell:

Wether I am playing in home games, pubs or casino's, I am always amazed at how many players will use the smaller denomination chips to call a bet with a hand they are not sure is ahead. For example, if I bet 500 on the flop, instead of using a 500 chip, they will call with 5 x 100 chips.

The players who tend to do this the most, are the ones who also do this on their blinds. ie put in 2 x 500 chips for a big blind of 1,000. If someone doesn't seem to care what denomination they use, and tend to use the biggest possible even on their blinds, then I wouldn't read them as strong simply because they use the biggest denomination chip possible.

But if someone who tends to use the small ones, suddenly calls your bet with one large chip, with the smaller ones available, this is a big danger sign for me. If they count out their smallers ones, its usually a draw or a pair with a weak kicker that won't stand upto much pressure on later streets. (It's like they don't hold up much hope of winning the hand, so they prefer to keep their larger numbered chips.)

A memorable hand:

Sometimes a bit of talking can also help, if you think you can get more info than you will give away. I once found myself near the bubble in a home game, (with players that I knew quite well), I had raise with pocket 4's in the sb to steal the bb, but had now found myself at the river for a pretty large pot, with 5 cards all larger than a 4. I checked hoping to get a free showdown, but this tricky player wasn't up for that. He started to collect a few differente denomination chips from his stack to put out a fairly decente sized bet. I was almost 100% sure he was bluffing, but there was no real way of calling with pocket 4's, because he could easily be repping top pair or whatever, but with a weak holding like bottom pair, so I could be right about him 'bluffing', but my 'hero' call might still see me lose the pot in a showdown!

I decided to try to talk him out of betting, and simply said to him something like, 'I wouldn't bother with that bluff, I will have to call' He just looked up a me a bit blank, so I said something again, along the lines of 'I know your bluffing, and I am going to call, so its best to save the chips' At this point he had stopped what he was doing, and I had his full attention. He asked why I would tell him I was going to call, if I knew he was bluffing. I knew that any sign of weakness at this stage would result in the chips going in, so I just had to go for it and said: 'Its actually funny that you think you have a choice or not, because during all this time, I have already Jedi mind tricked you into doing whatever it is that I want you to do.......

I think at this point he started to second guess himself, and basically confuse himself as to wether I was actually double bluffing him into making a bet. I tried to remain calm and fluid, not ridgid, smiled and took a few sips of beer. After staring for a while, without me looking away, and of course me enjoying a laugh with the other players, who were pretty intrigued at this point, he threw his cards into the muck and said to take the pot without even asking to see my hand!

This of course meant that he probably had nothing, and I should have check called for more chips, but I still think holding a pair with 5 overcards is a pretty dangerous call. And the whole situation clearly rattled him a bit, as he was soon out and maybe I got to the other players a bit too, as I manged to take it down for the win

[Rigsby]

Not sure if this a tell/reverse tell or what

In our regular home game going back a few years old boy Ron was as easy to read as a jordon biography, anyways first time it happened it was just me and him in the pot, he checks, i have nothing but start playing with chips, counting etc etc, had no intention of betting just wanted to see his reactions as i stacked up a pile, before i could even make a bet he folded lol.

Ended up doing this scenario on Ron many times after that and was alarmed how many times he actually folded, obviously when he never folded out of turn i just checked

Ihave many stories from this home game, but none suitable for a family forum like this
_________________
"o8 is Medicine" Knassen

[neilcaterham]

I a so crap at poker i could do with a book to find tells on other players and then i could post my results after i have read it!!
_________________
Wannabee Specialist Forum Champ