Recognizing three common poker tells

By Taylor Martin-Romme

Zenith City Weekly

A single gesture can be enough to gain knowledge of your opponent’s hand. Such non–verbal communication in Texas hold ’em is called a tell. Everyone has them, even if they don’t want to admit it.

Anything you do that gives other players insight into your cards can be a tell – how much you talk, how much you bet, or even how you handle your chips. If you can figure out your adversary’s tells, they can be used to your advantage.

Beware the braggart. This player’s tells come from a mobile mouth. Braggarts will talk and talk and talk until you want to punch them just to shut them up.

This emotional response is important because the braggart’s goal is to distract you from your game so you make a mistake. If they can rattle your cage, they win.

Aggressive bets are the trademark of this player and the way they place their chips in the pot is part of the persona.

Usually, they’ll take a large stack of chips, raise them above the table, and drop them one at a time, all the while talking about their great hand.

This overconfidence is an act, but if they use it on every hand, it can be difficult to weed out the garbage from the genuine article. The best way to catch them is when they drop the performance.

If they play to the end of the hand, make note of the cards they played and how much they bragged about them. After awhile, you should see a pattern, such as being more brazen on mediocre hands or more stoic with better ones.

Wait out the whiner. The whiner begins every game as an average player, using their own style to start.

They won’t rant about another player’s luck or brag about themselves; they merely complain that the cards they’re getting all suck.

This isn’t a strategy, per se, but it’s still a tell. These are average players who happen to be on a bad streak and want to moan about it. The tell is when they stop whining and start raising.

They might not have a great hand, but it’s better than what they’ve been getting. Eventually, these players will go on tilt and bet on lousy cards because they’re tired of the torment.

Advance on the all–or–nothing player. All–or–nothing players are rare and usually show up at large tournaments, but sometimes they turn up at smaller ones. They start every hand by doing and saying nothing. They won’t play a hand until they have pocket aces or suited high cards; then they go all–in.

This style, taught by poker pro Marcel Luske, gives the player an edge because they risk little early on, thinning the competition. As players fall out of the game, they will start to play more cards, but still only move all–in.

It’s tough to get rid of these players quickly because they go all–in at the beginning and only play top–notch cards. Getting a read on them is difficult because their tells are less obvious. They keep their play the same throughout.

Patience is their best weapon, so you have to beat them early. As the game goes on, they will play a greater variety of hands.