When Shakespeare wrote, “All the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players.” He probably didn't have poker in mind, but he certainly could have.
Poker is one of those games where the cards you have are less important than knowing how to play them and reading the players around you.
If you want to increase the odds of victory drastically in your favor, learning body language just might be your ace in the hole.
I know some of you are saying, “Well if I have a non-suited 7-2 and they have 4 of a kind they will almost definitely win! I doubt knowing body language and poker tells would help me then…” Yes, that is perhaps true if they are even a barely decent player, but that is not what I am talking about. That is only one hand of many, many hands. You have to think of the long game.
Even if you only play once a month or once a year you will play hundreds of hands and maybe hundreds of players. Each of them communicates non-verbally whether they want to or not.
Like the Shakespeare play mentioned above each of these players including you is doing some acting. There are experienced players acting like new players. New players trying to act like more experienced players. Some have weak hands acting like they are strong, and others have very strong hands acting like they are mediocre or weak. All of it in an attempt to fool you into pushing more of your hard earned money into the middle of the table.
Although the rules are fairly simple, because of the people and the interactions between them, poker is an infinitely complex game.
There is no way to pay attention to everything… to be able to read every tell, pattern, and every cue that is displayed. Yet to get an advantage over others you don't need to see everything, you just need to see more. You just need to have a little more knowledge and pay a little more attention than everyone else.
If you are unfamiliar with the term “tell” in reference to poker, Wikipedia gives us this fantastic description:
A tell in poker is a change in a player's behavior or demeanor that is claimed by some to give clues to that player's assessment of their hand. A player gains an advantage if they observe and understand the meaning of another player's tell, particularly if the tell is unconscious and reliable.
This is a guest post by Kyle McNatt. Kyle runs the website Advantage Body Language where he teaches his clients how to use the power of body language to their benefit.
What Type Of Poker Player Are You?
To help you get there I will give you some basic strategies and tells that will help you when you are at the table, whether you are playing a small game with friends and family, or gearing up to make a run at the World Series of Poker. Best of all, many of these techniques will also help you during negotiations and other times when it would be beneficial to get a read on another person.
There are two kinds of players, recreational and professional. This article is geared towards the recreational player. That would be the person who doesn't earn the majority of their money playing poker, creating books and videos on how to play poker and endorsing poker sites and products.
You see at the professional level they already know this stuff and have spent hours training themselves how to see and eliminate these things from their own game. They have hired trainers, watched countless hours of video of themselves and as many of their opponents as possible. At that level when you have played for tens of thousands of hours against thousands and thousands of players it becomes more intuition and instinct then recognizing this person made this move and that means this. They don't even think about it at that point, they just know without knowing.
This is for the other type of player. The player who does it for fun with friends and family once a month, or frequents games at local bars or casinos, or would even like to play professionally someday but for some reason hasn't reached that level of proficiency yet. So you must be careful because there are many, many levels of recreational player and the only thing that all poker players have in common is that they are all liars. Don't be mad it's true, and if you are not lying when you are playing, you are doing it wrong.
That is where we will start. I mentioned it earlier, but it is really the basis of so many tells and tendencies that you should remember it as an over-arching theme when playing. That theme is “Weakness is played off as strength, and strength is played off as weakness, or sometimes disinterest.” Understand that and you are really much further ahead than many other players.
If a person is trying to advertise they have a strong hand, many times it is really a weak hand. If they are humming and hawing then reluctantly call or raise, many times that will be a very strong hand and they are trying to get you or others to do anything but fold.
But caution!!!! This is a game where besides playing great fundamental poker, playing the players is as important or more important than playing the cards you are dealt in any particular hand, soooooo…. A lot of good players know this “strong is weak” line of thinking so they will act strong when they have a strong hand to try and convince you they are actually weak. I know it can be crazy confusing. What can you possibly do?
Like we talked about in the lie detection article (read it here if you haven't already) the first thing you should try and do is get a baseline of as many players as you can. If you can just get one or two that is better than getting none. The pro's and most experienced players do this automatically, and if you want to reach their level you should learn to do it too. Besides the usual lying cues you should also look for these poker specific tells and tendencies:
Note: There are hundreds of tells cataloged and available in lots of great books. I don't have the space to list them all here so these are considered some of the most common and easiest to spot. The real gold is observing each opponents tendencies, make a baseline, and know what it means when they deviate from that baseline.
Behavior When They Buy In
How a player buys into the game can tell you a lot about whether they will be a big bluffer or not.
- Conservative players are usually quiet and don't draw a lot of attention to themselves when they buy in. They talk low to normal, take their seat and get ready to play.
- A looser player will talk loud, flash money or try to somehow draw attention to themselves.
- You can bet the more conservative player will definitely bluff less than the flashy player.
How They Handle Their Chips
Especially betting – 4 things you should look for when it comes to chips:
- First how do they stack or interact with chips? Once again a more conservative player will stack chips neatly and take good care of them while a person with a loose playing style will not stack them as neatly or organized and might not stack them at all. Better players tend to stack them so they can easily count out a bet so make sure you have a good baseline before you decide that neatly organized stacks are a sure sign of a conservative player.
- A common tell is that when a person bets and puts the money closer to themselves they have a strong hand, and when they are bluffing they place the bet farther away from them. From a lie detection standpoint, this makes sense for people that don't usually do a lot of lying (perhaps more novice players) because most people want to distance themselves from the lie they are telling. If they push the chips out further and then follow that up with eye rubs, nose touching or neck touching this could certainly be a solid tell.
- After they have called do they grab their chips when it looks like you are going to call? This is an indication that they have a weak hand and are in a way threatening you with a show of strength. They are roughly saying, “Go ahead and call, my hand is so strong I will call you immediately so you should just fold instead.” Theme: weak appearing strong.
- How do they make the bet? A player with a strong hand will try to appear weak, like making the bet is a hard decision or they will bet very quietly trying not to draw attention to the bet and perhaps use weak language like “I guess I will call”. They may even make a bet and then look away from the bet, table, and other players as if they are distracted or disinterested in the results. They want you to think they are weak and to continue the betting. A person with a weak hand will make a show of betting making sure the other players notice they are betting, announcing their bet and/or raise loudly, perhaps even adding some theatrics to the entire process to show you how good their hand is. This is an attempt to appear strong so that you fold.
Observe How They Handle Their Cards
– Do they look at them more when they have a strong hand? This is something more inexperienced players do. They check their cards frequently to make sure they have what they think they have and it is still there.
– Do they look at them after the flop? This is an indication they have looked at the card values, but didn't make note of the suit and want to see if they have a chance at a flush if two suited cards came up as the new cards are introduced.
– Notice where they put their cards when they fold, bet or raise. You may be deciding to fold or call and it would be a good thing to know what the players playing after you are going to do before you make that decision.
How They Sit At Different Times During The Game
– Pay attention to their posture. Is it good and they have confident body language or are they looking like they are beaten and have low power body language. Either way, this could be a tell or it could be them bluffing you. Getting a good baseline will help you decipher which it is.
– When do they lean forward? When do they lean back?
– When do they move their hands when they talk? When do they hold them still or hide them?
– What does it mean when they do?
When And How They Talk
– Do they talk more when they are bluffing?
– When do they talk less? Why?
– What about volume or word choice? Are they talking big but using weak language, or talking like they are unsure but using confident language and facial expressions?
Observe The Body, Especially The Feet And Hands
– Look for micro-expressions on their face that are different from the words they are saying. Are they acting like they are disappointed by the river but you notice a flash of a smile they quickly hide?
– Are their hands shaking? This is a tell mostly for more inexperienced or high strung players. Usually, this will indicate a very strong hand. They know they may be headed towards a showdown and they're reacting to the body’s natural fight or flight rush of adrenaline. If an inexperienced person shows strong signs of anxiety and especially shaking hands…. Beware.
– Are they moving or tapping their feet? This could be both an indicator of a strong or weak hand. If strong they can't wait to claim their prize and just want to get the hand rolling. They will usually be very calm above the table because they want you to bet more, but can't completely contain their excitement. It could also be they have a weak hand and they are nervous. In that case, they will appear very strong above the table, but can't completely hide the anxiety and it leaks out through their feet. Another reason to get a baseline.
I wish I could list all the tells and tendencies for you, but time and space will not allow it. Also please remember in poker that everyone is trying to convince you to believe something that isn't true.
The better the player the better they act, and the better they lie, so everything you see has to be taken with a grain of salt and your true best bet is a good baseline.
In the words of Zachary Elwood author of the excellent book Reading Poker Tells
You should think of poker tells as being like any other observation you might make about an opponent. Just as you give weight to how reliable a player's betting patterns are, you can give weight to how reliable a player's tells are. If you are very uncertain about the reliability of a tell, you wouldn't assign much weight to that information.
But if you have observed a player for a while and are confident about his behavior patterns, his tells will impact your decisions.…While tell-reading is only a small part of playing great live poker, it's a powerful weapon to have in your arsenal. In my opinion, making good reads can add between 10% and 30% to a good player's win-rate.
Perhaps you will take this knowledge and dominate your monthly friends and family game, or the games at the local bars and casinos, or maybe your dreams are even grander. Either way, with this knowledge you have just stepped your game up considerably. So practice, practice, practice.
The more you play and the more you pay attention the better you will get. The better you get the more you will enjoy this King of All Games (I think I just made that up according to a quick Google search), and who knows perhaps one day you will be one of the players on the biggest poker stage of all, battling it out, deciding “To Bet or Not to Bet, that is the Question!” The answer is to play smart, be observant, and most importantly have fun. I wish you all the very best of luck.
References:
Elwood, Zachary. Reading Poker Tells. Portland: Via Regina Publishing, 2012.
