Know When to Fold ‘Em (and When to Raise): Live Poker Tells

One of the hardest things in poker (and life) is knowing when to give up and fold your cards. Just because your opponent is betting and raising doesn’t mean they have a better hand, as they can always be bluffing. Unless you have x-ray vision or are psychic, you’ll never know for sure if you made the right decision when you fold.

That said, there are definitely signs you can look for, that often tip you off that your opponent really does have a good hand and isn’t just bluffing. In the poker world, these are called “tells”. Tells are just that, gestures and body language that tell you whether your opponent has a good hand or whether they’re bluffing.

While they aren’t 100% guaranteed, some of the poker tells below can help you know when to fold when playing live poker, as they often tip you off that your opponent has a strong hand.

I’m Bored and Have No Interest in This Hand at All: Be very careful if your opponent looks bored, as if they could care less, especially if they’re looking over at the cocktail waitress, at the ceiling, anywhere other than at the cards on the table. Many players think that looking interested will tip off people that they have a good hand, so they act like they’re bored, as if they couldn’t care less. If this “bored” player suddenly wakes up and raises, they almost always have a very good hand.

Looking Down at their Chips: If a player quickly looks down at his stack of chips after the face-up community cards are dealt, it often means that he has a strong hand, and that the community cards helped his hand. His immediate reaction is one of excitement, followed by the thought of “How much do I have to bet?”, which is why he looks down at his chips. If he had a bad hand, it wouldn’t matter how many chips he had, as he would plan on immediately folding, so there would be no need to check his stack.

No Eye Contact: In the world of poker tells, strong usually means weak, and vice versa. If a player confidently bets and immediately looks into your eyes, trying to intimidate you and stare you down, this often means that he is bluffing, and that his hand is actually not very good. Conversely, if a player bets but looks away from you, looking very nervous and weak and not happy about their hand, this often means that they actually have a very good hand, and don’t want to tip it off by appearing strong.

Shaky Hands: While shaky hands is often a case of simple nervousness, it can also often indicate that a player has a strong poker hand. When players have a really good hand they often get excited, which causes their heart rate to increase. A natural side effect of an increased heart rate is shaking hands, so be careful at the poker table when you see a player’s hand shake, as it often means they have a very good hand, not that they’re bluffing and are nervous and scared.

How to Handle Winning and Losing at Poker

If you play poker for any length of time, you’re going to encounter both winning streaks where you can do no wrong as well as losing streaks, where the cards are against you no matter what you do. While you really can’t avoid the streaks, there are things you can do to handle winning and losing better.

When You’re Winning: Remember what got you here. Continue to be patient, waiting for good starting hands, and continue to be aggressive when you get them. A common mistake players on a roll make is that they start to play too many hands, thinking that since they’re on such a roll, they can win with any hand. Stick to your guns and wait for good hands.

You also shouldn’t move up in limits, just because you’re winning, unless you have the bankroll for it. Many players make the mistake of moving up too quickly to a bigger game, because they’re winning so easily at lower limits. Don’t mistake a short term winning streak for guaranteed future success or skill. Even the worst player at the table will have nights where they can’t lose, so don’t read too much into short term success. If you’re a consistent winner over months and months of play, then you can consider playing higher limits.

Enjoy the winning streaks when they come. Pretty simple advice, I know, but make sure you have fun and enjoy yourself when you’re on a roll. And be sure to remember how it feels, as those memories will help when you go through losing streaks.

When You’re Losing: Relax. It may seem like the end of the world but it isn’t. Everyone goes through losing streaks when it seems like you’ll never win another hand. Your goal is to continue to play the best you can, each and every hand, and not let the losses get to you.

Don’t try to get back all your losses in one day. Just stick to your normal game plan and play good poker. Lots of players make the mistake of moving up to higher limits when losing, in an attempt to quickly get back all of the money they’ve lost. This can be disastrous, as you’re often not playing your best anyway, so playing for more money only digs a deeper hole.

If things are going badly for you, take a break. Don’t be stubborn and continue to play, trying to get your money back. Talk a walk and stretch your legs. If things are going really badly, just pack it up and quit for the day. Poker isn’t going anywhere and will always be there waiting for you, when you’ve cleared your head and are playing your best poker.

Let go of my Eggo…. wait Ego.

The past week or so I’ve been thinking of how a persons ego can affect their game. The thought crossed my mind as I played a Limit 2/4 Hold Em table. I watched two players who are normally fairly timid and selectively aggressive players suddenly become hyper-aggressive monkeys. However, they were only hyper-aggressive against each other. Then the trash talk started to occur in the chat box, “come get me buddy”, “good luck”, “you’re momma is …” You get the point.

It occurred to me that neither of these players was really gaining anything, money or brains wise. They were basically swapping money while creating rake for the site. And I’m sure we’ve all seen this occur numerous times AND I’ll admit (and I’m sure you do too) that I‘ve been affected by this same brain-dead syndrome. So, why do we decided to pull these sorts of antics? (more…)

The Pre-Flop Push: A Defense, Part 2

See Part 1

So, in my prior post on this subject I promised a discussion about using this strategy when you’re an underdog to your opponents. What I mean here is that there are situations where you recognize right away that you are playing against people whose skills are superior to your own.

What? You’ve never been that situation? You’re always the best player at the table? Every time? Really?

Oh. Guess it’s just me then. Anyway…

Most poker players I know refuse to admit they are in a game where they aren’t the best person at the table. It’s an ego thing, and it can be deadly for your bankroll. We never want to believe we’re the fish in the game, but the fact is all “fishiness” is relative. Sometimes, you’re the shark; other times you’re the guppy. Just depends on who you’re up against.

You can control your game selection in live games because you actually have to go someplace, usually with people you know, sometimes with some intelligence about the skill level of your opponents. But online, especially in the tournament and SNG world, you’re flying blind.

Is donkalicious99 a high-buy-in, solid player on a bad run and stepping down to $10 SNGs? Is HotMary69 a newbie?

There are some tools out there that can give you a little insight into your opponents – Sharkscope, PokerDB, etc -but they’re limited because they can’t track players using different screen names on different sites. They also typically cost a few bucks to subscribe to, so you’re limited in how many searches you can do.

So, long story short, you get in a game and find 2 players are listed in Sharkscope as “Sharks”, and 420Bong420 sitting on your left is chatting away but hasn’t played a hand since Jesus Christ was pitching pennies against the temple wall.

Hmmm.

As you suspected, you survive the $10 SNG down to the bubble in, oh, 30 minutes, because the rest of the field is that bad. Now, it’s you and 3 solid folks, and you’ve seen a couple of advanced moves from each already. You know you’re the fish among those who are left.

How does that feel? (I don’t know, I’m never the fish… )

I keed, I keed.

You’re intimidated. You’ve already put up the buy-in, so it’s not like you can cash out and leave. You know you’ll be outplayed in the long run.

And therein lies the answer: Don’t let there be a long run.

Reduce the number of decisions to be made. Force the other players to make big decisions as early as possible with the BARE MINIMUM of information.

DO NOT PLAY THEIR GAME!

This is NO-LIMIT poker – don’t fall into their traps of “oh, let’s just see a flop,” and “why so big a raise so early?” You MUST set the tone and control the table. You don’t want to be mindless about it – if you’re a middle-stack and there’s a short-stack you want to be very selective about the hands you play. But, you can’t give up either, or you’ll be broomcorned out of the game. Every other player needs to be aware that if you’re in a pot, you’re playing for all of your chips, and all, or most, of theirs. This will make THEM be more selective about getting into pots with you. Change gears, be unpredictable, and watch who seems to be content to fold into the money and push on that person with any reasonable hand.

Solid players understand the Gap Concept very well. This is what you’re exploiting. The hand they’ll call off all of their chips with is going to be a lot better than the hand they’ll bet all of their chips on, and those hands don’t come around often enough. When this is the only decision they get to make in the hand, you’re playing the game that gives YOU the best opportunity to beat the better player.

 Comments or discussion? Shoot them to me at Big Slick Nuts Poker Blog.

The Pre-Flop Push: A Defense

Part 1: The Short-Stack

  

One of the more controversial strategies in texas hold ‘em tournament poker these days is going all in pre-flop, otherwise known as the “Push”. Those who consider themselves better players want more decisions to make, believing that if they make more decisions correctly than their opponent, they will win most of the time. The other camp will point you to Independent Chip Models and show you mathematically that they are ‘right’ to push.

  

So, who’s right? (more…)

SNG Strategy – the Endgame

If you’re looking for some type of sophisticated endgame strategy, you haven’t paid any attention to who’s writing this, have you?

So here’s the endgame strategy I employ, which is a little silly unless you think along my same lines – that my job is essentially done the second I’ve cleared a profit. Third is great! First is better, but third is greater than fourth by a larger margin that first is greater than third. Read that five times drunk.

WARNING – This won’t work if the people you’re playing are any good. But if you’re trolling around the low-level SNGs ($5 – $10), this is actually ridiculously effective.

1) If you’re 3rd, you’ve done your job. You have now made the money, the hard part is over. Your job is not to bludgeon everyone with your incredible skill, your job is to turn a profit. Mission accomplished.

2) Everything else is gravy. And fatboy luuuuvs gravy. So now milk these fools for everything they’ve got.

3) Ever read Super/System? The old one? Hit it. Power poker has limited place in today’s more sophisticated game, because most of us have read the book, but this is 100% the place for it.

In other words, start throwing raises and re-raises like Pauly throws dollars at strippers. Fling chips around like it’s Bobby’s junk. Even if you’re the short stack, jam as many pots as possible. Your opponents, unless one of them has a monster stack, have likely been super-tight waiting for the bubble boy to fall on his sword, and it’s going to take them a few minutes to adjust. Don’t wait – JAM. Worst case is, you finish third, fire up another one. But at these levels, your opponents cannot handle a super-aggressive player flinging chips like candy, so be that guy. But don’t be afraid to drop anything in the face of somebody playing back at you. As I was reminded time and again last night, even lemurs get dealt Aces.

So once you’ve made the money, shift into hyper-aggro mode to throw folks off balance and steal, steal, steal. I’ve found it to be more effective than I expected, and remember, my job is done when I’ve made a profit, now it’s time to take the gravy.