1. Get into a routine. Make sure you are very familiar with all of the tells mentioned in this chapter, and think about how you look to the other players. Try to do the same thing every time you bet. In advance, think about the physical actions that you go through when you bet or check. Do your best to keep your behavior uniform.

2. Be prepared. Often your opponent will actually ask you what your hand is or what your hole cards are. My reply is always the same, and said with a smile: “I don’t remember.” You can also deflect the question with one of your own: “What do you think I have?”

3. Use time to your advantage. When you get your cards, wait until it’s your turn to look at them. When the flop comes, spend that time watching other players watch the flop, especially if there was a preflop raiser.

4. Watch your table talk. Don’t talk about the hands you’ve played, the hands you’ve folded, or why you did or didn’t play a hand a certain way. Don’t show your hands if you’re not called. casinos

Back in 1985, when my son Neil was six-years-old, he and I were playing head-up no-limit hold ‘em at the kitchen table. During one hand he made a pot-sized bet, and I folded. After I threw my cards in the muck I asked him, “What do you have?” He had a stack of chips in front of him that was so high that I could barely see him sitting behind them. He raised himself up so that I could see his eyes peering out from behind that stack, shook his head from side to side and said, “Oh, no. You got to pay to see em.”

If possible, get a copy of Cam’s Book of Tells and the Pro Poker Tells video. You can find the book in most bookstores. You can also buy the book and the video directly from Cardoza Publishing, which you can reach by phone at 1-800-577-WINS, or on the Internet at www.cardozapub.com.

So many low limit players are unaware of the science of tells, and the average low-limit game is rich with them. Once you learn how to recognize the most common tells and how to profit from them, you will have even greater results than you do now.

Poker is actually a game of people played with cards, not a game of cards played with people. The player who accepts and understands this fact and works to take advantage of it will be way ahead of the player who doesn’t.

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A tell is a clue that a player provides about his poker hand by the way he acts. The tell can be verbal or nonverbal, made unconsciously or knowingly, and genuine or part of a deliberate act.

General Advice
Before I get into specific tells, there are a few guidelines that apply whenever you see a tell and you're trying to analyze it:

1. At the lower limit games, where most of the players aren't too sophisticated, popular belief holds that the best way to fool the other players is to act weak when you're strong and act strong when you're weak. It's very common to see players who have a full house act like they can't even beat ace-high and players who can't even beat ace-high act like they have a full house.

For this reason I'll advise you, if you're going to act at all, to act like your hand is strong when it's strong and to act like it's weak when it's weak. Many of your opponents will think you're lying, because that's what they would do, and they'll often misread your hand.

2. If you're trying to figure out what a possible tell means, don't make things harder than they have to be. If you think the other player doesn't know that he just gave you a tell, you can go with what it usually means. If you think he's acting and he gave you that tell on purpose, you can proceed from there accordingly.

3. If you spot a tell and you honestly can't decide what it means, you have several options. You can stop the action, think about it until you arrive at a conclusion, and then make your play. Alternatively, you can ignore it completely and rely on the other information you have to help you evaluate the hand.

Chances are, if you can't decide what a tell means after reading this chapter, it's probably not that valuable to you. The best you can do is remember the tell, remember the cards the player had when you spotted his tell, make a note of it, and think about it after the game.

4. A player's general demeanor during the play of a hand is a big clue as to the strength of his hand. If he appears to be happy, enthusiastic, and not worried, he probably has a good hand. If he appears to be unhappy, acts disgusted with his hand, or makes negative remarks, he probably has a bad hand. His general demeanor won't tell you exactly what his hand is, but it's certainly one more bit of information that you can consider when making your decisions.

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Next time you play in your regular game, perform the exercise of selecting a player in the big blind that you're going to victimize. Keep track of every time you raise to steal the blinds. Remember that your success is largely a function of the personality of the victim you've chosen and not necessarily attributable to the cards you hold.

Now here's the twist: Record the percentage of the time that you were successful in your records-under that player's name! Perform this exercise every time you play when you have enough time and opportunity, hopefully with a different player in the "hotseat." Do it long enough, and eventually you'll have a "Blind Stealing" index on most of your regular opponents.

Of all the poker tactics you could learn, stealing the blinds is one that's positively worth your time and effort to master. It's easy to understand, it's easy to pull off, it adds significantly to your hourly rate, it builds your confidence while you're learning other aspects of the game, and it doesn't require any special tools or equipment. But don't tell anyone I told you so.

Incidentally, if you play in a public cardroom and you want to know a player's name without drawing undue attention to yourself or the reason for your curiosity, there are several things you can do. You can introduce yourself to him, and he will usually give you his name in return. You can pay attention to the table talk and see if anyone at the table calls him by name. As a last resort, you can discreetly ask the floorman, who probably got his name before he seated him in the game.

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The difference between raising to take advantage of your late position and raising to steal the blinds is mainly one of intent. Often you'll be in the same position, raising with the same cards, in the same situation. Only you will know if you're taking advantage of your late position (and want someone to call), or trying to steal the blinds (and want no one to call).

There are a few more tips to add to last chapter's list when your intent is to steal the blinds:

1. Do not limp in with Group 1 hands. Usually, one of the best ways to disguise the strength of your hand is just to call when a raise would normally be more appropriate. In this case, your raise works in just the opposite way. Since your opponents expect you to raise in late position anyway, you can disguise the strength of your hand by doing what looks natural for your position. Raise. They will rarely be sure that you're raising because you hold AA, KK, QQ or AKs.

2. When you take a seat in a hold 'em game, closely observe the play of the three players to your left when they are in the big blind. If you happen to know these players and their profiles already, then so much the better. You're going to select a victim here, so you're scouting the turf in much the same way a burglar cases several houses at once to determine which one offers the best chance of his pulling off a successful robbery.

Watch these three players and then determine which one of the three is the least likely to defend (that is, call) when it is raised before the flop and he's in the big blind. Whichever one of the three players folds the most is your new victim. You should wait until this player is in the big blind to try your raise-steal move, because this will give you the best chance of success while you're still learning the game.

3. If your primary intent is to steal the blinds, you can raise with many more hands than you would if your intent were only to take advantage of your late position. Before you read further, can you see why? It's because if you performed the exercise described in the previous paragraph, you have a much higher chance of success than if you tried to steal at random.

You can now raise with pocket pairs of 5s and above, any time you have an ace or a king, regardless of your kicker, and when your hole cards are both 9 or higher.

If your intended victim in the big blind folds, then it doesn't matter what your cards were. If he calls, you're still in a good situation. His hand will be easy to read. Since he called in a spot where he almost never does, it must be very good. You have position on him throughout the hand, though. The combination of your having a read on his hand and position is enough to overcome any weakness in your hand after the flop. In the long run, you'll make a profit on this play.

4. If all three of the players on your left play very loosely, and they almost always defend their big blinds, then you should not try this move very often. Why try a certain tactic if you've already determined in advance that it probably won't show a profit? Game conditions change, though, and sometimes quickly and often. Be alert when players leave one of those three seats and are replaced by new players.

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If you're in late position, you'd probably raise before the flop with the following hands ("s" is for "suited"):

AA KK QQ JJ
AKs AQs AK KQs

There are forty-eight hands represented here. If you raise with only these hands, your opponents will always know that you're raising for value and to eliminate players. They don't have to worry about your raising primarily to take advantage of your late position. Your hand will always be easy to read. Add to your late position raise list the following hands:

1010 99 88 77
AJs AlOs A9s KJs

You've added another forty hands to your list. Now when you raise, it'll be equally likely that you're raising for value or raising to take advantage of your position. If your opponents catch on, and they eventually will, they'll know that when you raise in late position, it's 50-50 that your raise is for one reason or the other.

If you add another forty hands to your list, odds will be 2 to 1 against your having any of the first list hands when you raise. I recommend this ratio based on my years of experience at the table. This mix of hands will give you the best chance of confusing your opponents, making your hands harder to read and winning you the best possible profit in this situation in the long run.

Your assignment is to decide for yourself what you want those additional forty hands to be. Take the time and effort to write them down before you go to the game. Before you read this chapter, you'd already selected what hands to raise with before the flop in late position. Now you should have quite a few more hands on that list. Here's what I want you to do: in your notebook, keep track of how you do with the new hands the next few times you play in your usual game.

Record what percent of the time these new hands win the pot for you, and modify and adjust your list as you see fit. Every player plays in a different game, and what works well against one type of table lineup may not work as well at another table. Or it may work even better! Save these results in your notes for the game so you can make a comparison when you take another sample some time in the future.

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When all of the cards are out and you're in last position, one of two things will happen. Either your opponent will check to you, or he'll bet into you. At this point you should think of all possible poker hands as falling into one of four categories:

1. Low-strength hands. These are hands that were possibly on a straight or a flush draw and missed. After the river card comes, this hand might be only ace- or king-high. It might also be a low pair that the player knows can't win a showdown.

2. Medium-strength hands. These are hands like top pair with a good kicker, two pair, and three-of-a-kind if the board is paired.

3. Very good hands. These hands would be a set, a straight or a flush that is not the nuts, and maybe top two pair if no straight or flush is possible.

4. The nuts. Obviously, this is the best possible hand. Think about how likely it is that your opponent has made the nuts, especially if making it required hitting a gutshot straight draw or a backdoor flush.

When your opponent is first and he checks to you, he most likely has either a medium strength hand or the nuts. The reason that he'd check a medium strength hand to you is that with such a hand he has very little to gain by betting. Your hand could easily be a lot worse than his, and he won't win a bet from you when you fold. Your hand could also be far better than his, and he'll lose a bet (and the pot), when you call or raise. Your hand could also be close to his in strength. Not knowing how close, he'll just check.

Why would a player check, not just raise, to you if he had the nuts? The nuts is always a great candidate for a check-raise. If he's playing cards you wouldn't expect for his position, or if the turn and river cards gave him a good, unexpected hand, he will often consider a check-raise.

If your sole opponent bets into you, he probably has one of the other two types of hands: the low strength hand or the very good hand. Why would he bet a totally busted hand or only an ace-high into you? Well, he obviously cannot check and win. His bet is a bluff.
The reason that he'd bet a very good hand into you is that he's betting for value and wants to get paid off on the end. Why make a good hand if you're not going to make the other players pay for the privilege of making the second-best hands?

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Before the flop your hand could turn out to be anything in the end. One good thing about the flop is that when you see it, you will know exactly what your hand is and exactly what the odds of improving it by the river are. Play after the flop is fairly automatic in most instances, because you either have a hand or you don't, and you're either drawing to a straight or a flush or you're not.

If you have what you think is the best hand, you should play in a way that protects your lead. The flop is when most players will fold if they missed, and a bet or a raise from you will help them do so.

Don't give free cards on the flop if you have any kind of hand at all, and you think your opponents will fold if you bet. Betting and raising to eliminate players works best before the flop and on the flop.

f you showed strength before the flop by raising, then in the absence of any obvious signs that you could be beat, you should usually continue to give the impression that you have a strong hand. Give your opponents an opportunity to fold on the flop, especially if they've checked to you.

An opponent who checks and calls on both the flop and the turn could very likely be on a draw. Pay particular attention to the river card and be alert if it looks like it could have completed a draw for your opponent.

For example, if the board is KYJ*5*84, and the river card is either the A* or 9V, and he bets into you, he very likely is holding Q4104 and has made his open end straight on the river. If the river card is another *, and he bets into you after having checked to you twice, then he has likely made a ♦ flush.

If a third suited card comes on the river and a player who has been checking to you comes out betting, how do you know for sure that he has just made his flush? Well, you can never be 100% certain. He's representing a flush, but he may or may not have one.

What you have to do is look at the situation from his point of view. If he doesn't have a flush, then that flush card on the river looks just as scary to him as it does to you, yet he bet it anyway. Don't overlook the fact that even though that's a flush card on the river, it could have made him just a straight or a good two pair, and he's betting that it didn't make you a flush.

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