About a month ago, my father asked me, “When you play poker, what type of tells do you pick up on?”
A question that comes to mind is,”What are tells?” Tells are in fact mannerisms, actions, or procedures that are taken subconsciously that give a clue as to what a person is thinking about. There are all types of tells in Texas Hold’em. Many people might remember the ’90s movie, “Rounders.” In this movie the lead character, played by Matt Damon outwits one of the best players of New York, KGB, played by John Malkovich, to rid himself of outstanding debt that he and his long-time friend acquired. Matt does this by seeing KGB commit a “tell.” Every time KGB had a dominant hand, he would take apart an Oreo cookie and eat on half. Many people believe that tells are only seen during play. When someone is involved in a hand they do show tells that one can easily perceive as a strong-handed tell or a weak-handed tell. There are still others you can see when you walk to a table to begin playing. You can learn more about Texas Hold’em Basic Pre-Play Tells for Poker at situs poker online 24jam. It is real easy and you can get familiar with the game of poker in no time.
When my father asked me that question I paused and said, “Well, to be honest, I can tell who I can bluff and who I don’t want to be in a hand with without even sitting down.” He did not believe me so I told him the lessons I have learned over the past five years playing private tournaments and cash game. There are two main points of interest you should notice as you sit down.
1) Look at the way the person is dress or rather, they’re overall appearance.
Say you sit down at a table with a gentlemen wearing slacks, a button down shirt, possibly a tie, and a haircut that is properly groomed with hair supplies and brushed to where not one hair is out of place. Watch this person closely. Most of the time when they have an average chip-stack, in comparison with other players chips at the table, they will play only high end hands. They tend to play more conservatively but when they have a good hand, are not afraid to put chips into the pot. This person is one you want to play when you have position on them. You want to see how they bet at a pot and exploit their hand for all it’s worth. Try to get them out of the pot as fast as you can, hopefully pre-flop.
On another note, let’s pretend you see someone that is wearing a brightly colored shirt or maybe one that has a artistic design. They’ll probably have longer hair, probably not as groomed, and possibly even tattoos to match. This person is a loose cannon. They are hard to push around because they like to see flops and outdraw their opponents. The safest way to play this type is to let them do the betting. I actually tend to like to play people like this out of position in most hands. Check to them, see how they play, and if you believe you hand is of higher value, check-raise them or if you have the “nuts”, check -call until they have better pot odds to call.
2)When the appearance is taken into consideration, notice how the players stack their chips.
This tip is more reliable than the appearance tip but should be used in conjunction. The conservative player will stack the chips almost perfectly, straight up and down with no chip out of place. The aggressive “loose-cannon” player will hastily stack their chips often hardly vertical and many times with chips out of place.
I use these tips at tournaments with unfamiliar players. I play many tournaments at different locations and the majority of the time have never met my opponents but win almost 90% of the time. Look for my next article on Pre-Flop Play.