TELL ME THE TRUTH

Over the last several years, the explosion in poker has been nothing short of astronomical. The combined effect of televised poker complete with under the table cameras and the Internet has moved the game into another dimension. Millions of people worldwide now know how to play or at least have heard of Texas hold’em. Nearly all of the poker that is seen on television is no-limit tournament hold’em and there is a very good reason for this. In an era when poker can cash in big time if it can find enough bums on seats, then cash games and other slower less popular forms of poker are not going to come into the equation at all for televised events.

No limit Texas Hold’em, once dubbed the “Cadillac of poker games” by two-time world champion Doyle Brunson is the game people want to play. The ability to make big power plays and bluffs in this form of poker just fuels the public’s interest in it even more. In this article, I will be exploring the complex subject of “tells”. It is this area of poker along with bluffing that absolutely fascinates beginners and non-players. Much of it has gone down in folklore and Hollywood has certainly played its part. So what is a “tell”, quite simply it is information that can be either visual or audible that is given off by or extracted from an opponent either intentionally or unintentionally that may or may not assist you in the playing of the hand.

Many people have asked me what I look for when I am looking for a tell. While I play professionally almost entirely on the Internet, I do play in quite a few large cash games where a tell can mean the difference between winning and losing hundreds if not thousands of pounds. This is a very complex subject and it takes a lot of experience both in poker and/or in life to be a good people reader. A big misconception is that you need to be an experienced poker player before you can become good at reading people. This is not necessary true as utilising “life skills” can be a vitally important part of the process.

Many players who have had little or no experience of poker have had remarkable tournament results and some of these have not been flukes or achieved because of a poor tournament structure either. Poker is definitely a game where life experience can take you a long way. This does not mean that any new player can neglect their poker education, it just means that certain players can possibly have a head start over others if they possess certain skills that simply cannot be taught by any book.

On a personal level, we are constantly searching for and discovering “tells” every single day of our lives. You look your young son directly in the eye to try and ascertain whether or not he has been lying to you. You may study your partners face during a quiet moment to try and figure out if anything is worrying them or whether or not they are in discomfort. You may even watch other peoples faces after you have told a joke to see if they really did find it funny or if they are merely laughing out of politeness.  We have all done these things but some individuals are better at it than others. Of course, anyone who practises this in everyday life or who has a job or profession where these skills are needed is going to have a very good background in this form of “instinctive psychology”.

Many people who are watching poker on television simply do not understand fully what it is that they are watching when it comes to understanding it on a technical level. Even many professionals would struggle to get inside the head of a world class player who is capable of thinking on many different levels. This leads people to place far more importance on certain areas of the game and less on others. Bluffing and reading other players are two such examples.

This article is simply a primer to what I will be discussing over the coming months on this incredibly complex subject. Of course the material that I will be covering  focuses on live games. While “tells” do in fact exist on the Internet, it is visual “tells” that I will be concentrating on and this will be where the next column begins. I will at a later date also focus on the subject of “tells” on the Internet which predominantly focuses on betting patterns, playing tempo and chat box talk.

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