TOP TEN POKER RULES EXPLAINED

Expressions, tics, sighing... these are all signs your opponents make and which you can read to help your game Phil Shaw lets you in on the top ten tells.







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Whether you play poker online, in home games or in a club or casino, there is much more to the game than just card values and ranking hands. As you'll have learned from previous poker articles, understanding factors such as position, how your opponents play, choosing the right games and self-discipline are all huge money winners.

But the key factor is a 'tell': an unconscious indication from an opponent that reveals to you the strength of their hand or how they are likely to act. And if you know the gesture another player makes before folding, it doesn't matter what cards you have - you can win a pot easily. And if you know that they hold the 'nuts', you can save a fortune! Tells come in numerous forms, so you must learn to read each player as well as remembering the general rules.

These rules have been set in stone since Mike Caro published Caro's Book of Poker Tells, in which he covers most areas of interest as well as distinguishing between 'tells from those who are unaware' and 'tells from actors'.

He also coined the general principle that, with players putting on an act, 'weak means strong and vice versa'- if a player acts weak, they have a strong hand and if they try to display strength, the opposite is true.

This book is essential reading for any poker player and is still the main body of writing on the subject. Read and re-read it - most of today's serious players have done so.

In addition to figuring out who the actors and the unaware are, modern poker players have to figure out who has read the book and will try to confuse observers with 'fake' or 'reverse' tells. So it's very important to take players on a case-by-case basis and try to understand from their actions how sophisticated they are. For example, a newcomer to the local £5 beginners' night game who bets any two cards and calls with any pair or gutshot is unlikely to be giving out reverse tells. But a pro, who sits looking nervous and seems to swallow a lot when in a hand with you, may well be selling a line. Once you have some idea of what level the other players are at, you can figure out what their possible tells mean.

When most pros talk about making a difficult read, they usually mention sensing extreme weakness or strength as the key factor. As they are so good at taking in all the available information and deciding what it means they don't consciously need to look for it.

For the beginner or average player, though, this sixth sense takes time to develop. To give you a head start, here are the top ten areas you can look at. Remember our words, however, and beware of anyone tricky enough to try and send you the wrong way!



1.) Eyes
They are so easy to read that many players wear sunglasses in a game, while others complain that wearing them is cheating. As everyone knows, the windows of the soul can tell you how someone is feeling, if a partner is being truthful, or if they really did win on the horses that afternoon. Recently at the Heads Up stage of the Paris World Poker Tour, Tony G was so dismayed with Surrinder Sunar for ignoring him that he got down on the floor next to him and tried to peer behind his opponent's glasses in search of a reaction.

Watching the eyes can be a major earner. Caro says glancing at someone or staring for an unusually long time can be a sign of a bluff. He adds that a player who looks away is a much greater threat than one who watches what is happening (as they don't want to discourage a bet), and that a quick glance at their chips after checking their cards or the board is a key sign that a player has something powerful.



2.) Chips
Does a player stack their chips neatly or leave them splashed over the felt in front of them? Do they build precarious skyscrapers with them or solid, fortress-like enclosures? These are the kinds of things that might give away the way a player is feeling or their general mentality. Of course, this is one of the easiest tells to reverse, so it shouldn't be taken too seriously. But other aspects of chip handling are sometimes important.

For example, a player who put chips in a pot in several different ways might be subconsciously telling you something each time, whereas the way someone acts with them in response to you might also be key. One commonly known tell is the 'threat beat' where as soon as you look likely to bet your opponent picks up a huge pile of chips hoping to scare you off. Players who riffle their chips or do tricks with them are also giving away valuable information, even if it may only be that they have previous poker experience or want to gain some authority over the table.



3.) Facial Tells
Nervous twitches, frowns, smiles, furrowings of the brow and itches that just have to be scratched are some of the most revealing areas, yet also the easiest and most popular to fake or reverse. For example, next time you find yourself faced with a tough decision, consider whether the opponent really looks like they had to scratch their head as a comforting device, or if the action is contrived and ostentatious. Similarly, if you watch a televised event, you might consider whether the Pokerbrat was covering his mouth out of a subconscious need to conceal a lie (bluffing), whether it was an act designed to suggest the opposite, or whether it was even a 'double bluff' trying to back up the steal attempt!



4.) Props/Comforting Devices
Many players smoke or drink during a hand, but what does the way or time they do this signify? Is the way they exhale smoke a release of tension or do they savour the next drag as they prepare to move in for the kill? Do they gulp down water in an attempt to repress a bad beat or as if they're about to leave the table?

If they're drinking, how much have they had and is this next one likely to take them over the edge? In the film Rounders, John Malkovich's character Teddy KGB was revealed as having a disastrous Oreos-related tell. While your local game sure isn't Hollywood, the props and comforting devices that people transfer emotions to are key to understanding their play.

Similarly, many players eat at the table, and a player who looks at his cards and goes back to his meal isn't likely to be interested in anything else but his belly. Other players have chip markers or lucky charms which they toy with, or riffle their chips as a way of releasing tension. If you can figure out why they interact with their props at any given moment, it could well make you a fortune.



5.) Posture
Does a player sink into their seat or sit up in response to a bet or looking at the cards? Do they appear relaxed or nervous, are they agitated or still? These factors are observed by everyone, but they may tell you whether a player is disconnected or involved from a poker game, if they are in the zone or nervous and unlikely to bet without a strong hand. Similarly, you can observe whether players check one card at a time or both, or if they need to look back at their cards occasionally (maybe when a flush becomes possible on a Hold'em board) and how they then react.



6.) Hands
Along with the eyes, the most revealing parts of the body are the hands. They may express impatience through tapping on the table, the forward gesture of a powerful all-in, or be used to put chips in a variety of motions. The best-known piece of information about them is that when a player's hands begin to shake violently this often means they have a superb holding - although this must be qualified in the context of the situation. An Internet qualifier playing in their first major event might have hands that shake every time they pick up their cards!



7.) Voice
The road gamblers of old would often say that they could read a man's hand from the way that he spoke. And today, even for the inexperienced, what a player says and how they sound can be a great way of determining what they are holding or likely to do. In a televised event, you will often see a player ask someone how much he has left when you can be sure he has a fair idea and just wants to hear the opponent speak.

Similarly, the way in which a player says: 'Raise' or 'All-in' can be indicative of where they're at in the hand. In a game such as No Limit Hold'em, where players often play a draw like a made hand, this can be vital information. And listen to any other comments they make, try to figure out what they want you to do - then do the opposite!



8.) Heartbeat
Everyone has seen the fun that can be had from novel innovations, such as the TV show Poker Million - The Masters' use of heart rate monitors, whereby viewers can tell exactly which Internet qualifier is thinking about their mortgage, which circuit regular needs a new health regime and why certain sporting personalities are relentless achievers.

Observing heartbeat and blood pressure related tells can be key information for the pros. A player whose breathing has started to resemble that of an Olympic athlete is clearly not in a normal internal state; similarly, it is difficult to fake calmness when your neck vein is beating like a heavy-metal drummer and your brow is sweating like you've got a fever. Both of these tells can be reliable signs of a bluff and even concern some of the best players since they are often involuntary. At the European World Series of Poker in Vienna this year, winner Peter Roche was so concerned about the latter tell that he spent the whole final wearing a neck scarf.



9.) Betting Patterns
Most poker players rely on logic as much as their reads of other players, and people tend to repeat the same motions. So if a player regularly overbets the nuts or checks the turn when bluffing, this might be as worthwhile an observation as all the others put together. A tell is just a piece of information that reveals the strength of your opponent's hand. If you find an area in which they repeatedly show weakness or strength by betting certain amounts, or betting in certain ways, then you've struck gold.



10.) Internet/Live Tells
Tells exist much less on the Internet than in live games, but even online a new set of tells are created by the environment itself. Pre-action buttons for checking (where players tick a box and the action is taken in turn) can be a great sign against unsophisticated opponents that all you have to do to win is bet. And, with the absence of visual information, the speed of betting becomes a more salient factor. This is true in a live game as well, but online people are so much more likely to be multi-tasking - making coffee or playing in several games at once - that it is often more reliable there. Similarly, if a player pauses for an abnormal period before raising or calling, you have seen something interesting. Do they have a tough decision to make or are they trying to reel you in (particularly likely if they then raise)? Alternatively, do they see you as attentive enough to be watching out for and recording their moves?

Screen names or avatars are also an interesting factor online, since the global nature of Internet poker might throw you together with opponents for only short periods of time and you will have to make quick assessments. For example, people with gangster personas may either be there for business purposes or to pose; the supermodel picture may actually disguise a 25-stone truck driver from Skegness, and while 'PhillyHelmuth' probably isn't who the name suggests it is, 'Neverwin' certainly isn't a guy you want to play shorthanded $100-$200 Hold'em with!



Reproduced with the kind permission of Inside Edge magazine.