21 Tips and Secrets

Here are tips and pointers to help you make the most of poker tells. It covers observation (watching other players), how to use tells, hiding tells, bluffing, reliability of tells, how to resolve conflicting tells and more.

Observation

- Don't be in a hurry to look the cards. Watch the other players first.

- When it's not your turn or when you fold, keep an eye on the action. Be as interested as when you are in the hand.

What to Do with Tells

- If a player is tight, bluff often and bet seldom.

- If a player is loose, bluff seldom and bet often.

- When the tells suggest a player has a strong hand, you have these choices: a) if your hand is weak or marginal, fold; b) if you have the nuts, let him bet so you win more; c) if you were thinking of bluffing, don't.

- When faced with a player bluffing with a weak hand, you should call their bluff even with a marginal hand. Play a wider range of hands.

Disguise

- Wear sunglasses to hide your eyes.

- Memorize your cards so you don't have to double-check.

- If you are tight, do not arrange your chips so neatly.

- If you are playing loosely, stack your chips nicely.

Bluffing Tells

- Bluffers act unnaturally. They try to get attention when they bet and want to be invisible the rest of the time.

- Non-bluffers act naturally. They try to be innocuous when betting and are at ease the rest of the time.

Reliability of Tells

- Generally, poker tells are more reliable among novice players than experts. The latter may try to conceal them.

- However if a player is very unskilled, they can be unreliable as a tell is only as good as a player's understanding of their hand. If they do not know how good (or bad) their hand really is, the tell will mislead you.

Natural and Fake Tells

- When a poker tell is genuine, it only takes a moment, then it's gone. The player is not trying to draw attention to the tell.

- If a poker tell is an act, it is usually overdone and prolonged in order to get your attention.

Good Players

- Don't make it obvious to a good player that you read their tells. If you do, they will disguise their tells more next time.

- Good players like to play dumb when they have a good hand.

Bad Players

- Bad players are where the money is. Go to them.

Profitability of Poker Tells

- It is more profitable to identify a weak hand than a strong one. Recognizing a strong hand lets you save a bet. But identifying a weak one can let you win the whole pot. You get to play a wider range of hands that you might otherwise not play.

Conflicting Tells

- When tells seem to contradict one another, the one that is harder to fake is the more reliable one. For example, sweating cannot be faked, but the tone of voice can be easily changed. The head can be moved, but the eyes don't lie.

How To Make A Living On Poker

It is often imagined that playing poker calls for huge money and is likely to drown one into debts and loss. However, the scenario is not that tragic at all. All you need is the focus, the passion and the intelligence to make a living on poker. While some of the poker games involve risking a lot of money, there are games that do not demand a huge amount. It is a good idea to start with the latter. Eventually, you can go ahead investing more if you manage to have the savings and think it fit based on your prospects in a particular game.

First, you need to be aware that when you are a fresh in the field of online poker, you are likely to be intimidated by players who are poker professionals for a long time. They will definitely be more skilled with their investment and foresight on the game. The crux is you have to really work on yourself and master the game so that you stand a class apart and far more competent as the days go by.

Second, once you enter the league of online players, you can often get carried away and hurriedly invest randomly expecting a hefty return. This is not going to work and other experienced players would take advantage of you hastiness. You lose money and reputation as an online poker player.

If you are an aspiring poker professional and wish to make a living on this game, you must be mentally prepared to put in long qualitative hours in this game. You can acquire real experience only when you study poker thoroughly and play poker online with full concentration for long duration. This would test your patience, attentiveness and the urge to make it big in poker.

Fourth, becoming an online poker professional is not mere cakewalk. It calls for immense respect for fair poker, and extraordinary dedication. It is not like a mundane 7-8 hour job. It needs high involvement on your part. Most important, poker is not a job that promises you a specific amount of money every month. This might induce financial insecurity on the part for the player. Thus you need to be free from such emotions and confidently play through with conviction. This is possible if you possess the skill of a good poker player and a strong vision about the game, the rest comes with experience!

Lastly you must not take poker lightly if you are searching for a complete living out of it. There would be good times; there would be bad times but that need not push you to acquire baseless prejudices on the game. If you make mistakes in the process which is common, you will lose money but that does not imply that your ship will sink. You will master the game only through trial and effort and that can be experienced only if you play the game which involves initial hardships and losses. But eventually, you become a professional and know better how to invest and how to get the best return on poker.

Studying Your Opponents

By Lou Krieger

One of the oldest adages in poker – it’s one you’ve heard repeated time and time again – is that if you can’t spot the fish during your first ten minutes at the table, it’s you. Most adages have a least a modicum of truth in them, and this one has a lot.

How do you spot the fish at the poker table, and what should you do when you can’t? Everyone knows that you have to be observant at the poker table, but there’s so much going on that it’s just about impossible to pay attention to everything. And even if you could, there are some things that aren’t happening that you need to pay attention to also. More about that later.

The Best Way to Study Players

Increasing levels of familiarity will help you with this task. That’s another way of saying that as you continue to watch your opponents, you’ll pick up things later on that you probably won’t see initially. So it’s best to look at the big-picture things first.

What’s obvious and available for all to see? When first sitting down at the table, look for skill signs and begin correlating your opponents’ play with the hands they turn up at showdown. You can easily do both at the same time.

Poker skill signs are easily found in live poker games. How comfortable is your opponent with the game, the speed of play, and the others at the table? Is he comfortable with his chips? Does he riffle them with an air of sureness and certainty that suggests he spends hours upon hours at the card table? Sure, there are poker players graced with manual dexterity who can riffle chips like a slight-of-hand artist and can’t play worth a damn – but there’s usually somecorrelation between these things and skill.

In some cases it may be very high. In others, not at all. But you have to start somewhere and if your opponent is at ease with the game’s mechanics, give him credit for being able to play, but be ever vigilant and willing to downgrade that rating based on information gathered later.

Showdown Hands Provide Vital Information

The most accurate information you’ll be gathering about your opponents will be the hands they turn over at the showdown. Whenever cards are turned over at a hand’s conclusion, the information is gold. You know what your opponent was holding and if you replay each of the betting rounds in your mind, you’ll be able to see how he valued his particular hand in the face of whatever action was initiated by him or in response to the action of his adversaries.

Showdown hands provide insight into a player’s willingness to aggress if he was the guy doing the betting or raising. Was he aggressive with a very big hand? Was he on a stone cold bluff? Was he semi-bluffing with a drawing hand? All of this information can be gathered and stored in your mental database simply by observing the hands players expose at showdown and correlating it against the action that took place on each wagering round.

This is the most precise and reliable information you can gather about your opponents because it is all based on observable facts. You don’t have to make assumptions about what you think he might have had; the facts of the matter – in the form of showdown hands – are all there for you to see.

You can learn which players are willing to defend their blind from early position with weak or medium strength hands and who will cold-call a raise with a marginal hand. Showdown hands will also tell you which players will call when the pot odds are not favorable to them.

Who’s a calling station? Who is aggressive all the time? Which players like to limp-in regardless of their place in the betting order simply because they like to see as many flops as they can?

Who always comes in for a raise? Which players will always raise from late position when first to enter a pot? Which of your opponents will never release a hand like Ace-King or pocket Jacks, even when all the signs point to the fact that they are beaten?

Players who won’t fold can be value bet to death, but they can’t be bluffed. Others, who will fold all but the best hands, are easily bluffed, and scrutinizing opponents’ hands that are turned up at the showdown and examining them against any whatever wagering took place on the various betting rounds just might buy you a license to steal.

Ongoing Decisions

Every time a new player sits down at the table, you have to begin scoping out his or her game. While it’s generally a good idea to develop a quick impression of his play during his first 10 minutes at the table, that’s not nearly enough.

Many players come to the table resolving to play good poker, only to change gears the minute they lose a hand. When this happens, you need to reassess your opponent. Maybe he was pretty snug – and therefore bluffable – when he first sat down, but after taking a lick or two, he might fly open and call every bet made in his direction. If that’s the case, you have to do a complete about-face and become a value bettor rather than a bluffer – at least where this guy is concerned.

Dollars and Cents

How much your opponent chooses to wager in a no-limit game is critically important information. If your opponent is a raw beginner who bets proportionally to the strength of his hand, you can play him as though he’s turned his cards face up.

Some poker players will bet smaller when on a draw than they will with a made hand. Others will bet small when they are trying to induce a call with a huge hand, and some will make large wagers when they want to drive you off the pot.

Some of your opponents will play power poker. They are very selective and aggressive and when they bet, it’s usually a large wager. Others are small-ballers, typically wagering less than three times the big blind when they raise before the flop.

Many players will try to keep the pot small with medium strength hand, while betting big with powerhouse hands and bluffs too – albeit for very different reasons.

The only way you’ll be able to categorize these opponents – and thereby determine an appropriate strategy for beating them – is to examine showdown hands and correlate them against the wagering that took place during the hand’s play.

Common Poker Tells

In a live poker setting you also need to be aware of common poker tells, even though they are seldom as reliable as watching the hand an opponent turns over and correlating it with how he played on every wagering round of the just-concluded hand.

Poker tells, by definition, require some educated guesswork on your part and they have to be applied differently for each opponent. Nevertheless, there are a few nearly universal tells that you can rely on, unless your opponent’s action shows you that a particular tell does not apply in his case.

At the Beginning

When you first sit down at a poker table, your antennae won’t be able to pick up nuanced signs. So you have to begin painting with a broad brush. Find out who’s loose and tight, and which players are passive and which opponents are aggressive.

That’s your basic cut at reading a table: loose vs. tight; passive vs. aggressive. You’ll find players fitting into each of those four basic boxes:

1. Loose-passive
2. Loose-aggressive
3. Tight-passive
4. Tight-aggressive

Some of the time your opponent’s will wobble and vacillate between boxes. Relegating your opponents into these little squares will seldom be a perfect fit, but it’s a start. Once you’ve got them categorized, begin refining your judgments about how they play with an eye to determining how they vary their play under differing circumstances.

Some players get very aggressive when raised while others seem to turn turtle and curl up in a foetal position.

A Few Final Thoughts

Studying your opponents is always a work in progress. Even when you’ve studied an opponent for quite some time and feel like you have a good read on him, it’s important to remember that he is not a machine that responds the same way every time. He will fool you at times, and surprise you at others. He may be different tomorrow than he was today.

Studying opponents is not a perfect science. But if all you do is get a little better at your game because you took the time to read the handwriting on the wall that every poker player offers up to the table at large, you will have raised your game and that’s always a step in the right direction.

Betting Basics of Poker (All-in Bets & Side-Pots)

By Tim Ryerson

In our lesson on the three main betting variations of poker, we used an example where a player in a no-limit game could bet far more than anyone else at the table, provided the player had such an amount. Poker is always played at table stakes, and this means you can only wager the amount of money you have in front of you when the hand begins. It is quite common for a player to run out of money during a hand. If you have more money than another player, it doesn’t mean you can bet them out of the pot because they can’t afford to call your bet. Otherwise the poker player with the most money would always win if he bet all his chips, and it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable game.

All-in Bets

When a player puts all his chips into the pot he is said to be “all-in”. The important thing to know is that a player can never be bet out of a pot because he always has the option to call for all of his chips. For example, a player with $50 goes all-in, and everyone folds apart from a player who only has $30 left:

Figure 1

This player cannot match the $50 bet, but he can also go all-in for his last $30. When nobody else is involved, the first player would get back the unmatched $20 bet (i.e. his bet is $30 rather than $50). This is shown in figure 2, below:

Figure 2

In this example the shorter-stack wins the pot, but the surplus $20 is returned to player 5.

The whole point of this is that players can take back any extra money when another player is all-in for less, when nobody else has called. The same applies to an extreme no limit example, where a player might bet $10,000 in a $1/$2 game. Here’s an example where it’s folded around to the big blind, who has $10 remaining in his stack.

Figure 3

He has $12 in total and clearly can’t match the $10,000 – but he can go all-in. If he does then the player with $10,000, would take back $9,988. No more betting would take place, as there isn’t anything left to wager. After the flop, turn and river, the player with the best hand would win the $25 pot ($12 from each plus the small blinds $1).

Side Pots

It can be a little more complicated when there’s more than two players involved in a hand. This is when a side pot is created for the other players, and any further bets cannot be won by the all-in player. The all-in player is eligible for the main pot only.

Take a look at figure 4, below, which shows three players remaining in a hand. Two players have $50 each, and another has just $10 remaining. In this example the pot already contains $40 from the previous betting rounds. Player 5 makes a bet of $20:

Figure 4

Player 6 only has $10 but he can call for his last $10 (and would therefore be “all in”) or fold. If player 7 decides to go all-in for his last $10, then the last active player (player 7), who has $50, can call, but must call for $20, which is the original bet, or he can raise. If he calls then a side pot is created, as is shown in figure 5:

Figure 5

The main pot now contains $70, which is made up of the existing $40 in the pot, plus $10 x 3. Player 6 is “all in” and can only win this main pot. A side pot containing the extra $20 is created, and can only be won by the players who contributed to this side pot (players 5 and 7). The next card will be dealt and further betting will take place. Any further bets are added to this side pot, and not the main pot. Players 5 and 7, who contributed to the side pot, can win the side pot and the main pot, if their hand beats the “all in” player. If player 7 has the winning hand after the final betting round, then he will win the $70 pot, but the side pot will be won by either player 5 or player 7.

Conclusion

There has been quite a bit of information in this lesson, which to the uninitiated could be confusing. As soon as you start playing poker you’ll quickly become familiar with these betting basics because they occur very frequently. Sometimes there can be lots of different side pots during a hand involving lots of different players – whether it’s limit, pot limit, or no limit poker. This is because not everyone has the same amount of chips – and players who have fewer chips than an opponent cannot win more from a player than they contributed themselves. The important thing to remember is that a player can never be bet out of hand because he doesn’t have enough to call.

Reading the Board

By Tim Ryerson

Texas hold’em is a game of information availability – and when you go through a hold’em hand, regardless of whether it’s fixed-limit, pot-limit or no-limit hold’em, you need to be able to read the board and understand what it’s telling you. This is critically important.

The first step is to evaluate the composition of the board. This means working out what hand you hold based on your two hole cards and those on the board. But it’s also important that you connect the dots and have an awareness of what the best possible hand (the nuts) might be. Knowing what the nuts is on any given board is second nature to seasoned poker players, but it’s not always so obvious to beginners. Hopefully by the end of this lesson it will be.

Common Flop Textures

The flop is a defining moment in hold’em and can be made up of many different card combinations. Here are a few examples of common flop textures you will see when playing hold’em:

The Rainbow Flop

A rainbow flop means all three cards are of different suits. A rainbow flop means nobody can hold a flush without drawing on both the turn and the river, as the maximum number of suited cards a player could have at this point is three (two in the hole plus one on the board). If the turn is a card of the fourth suit, then a flush defintely won’t be possible.

The Flush Draw Flop

This flop has two cards of the same suit (spades), which means the maximum number of suited cards a player could have at this point is four. If a player has four suited cards then he’s said to be “on a flush draw”, and could have two opportunities for hitting a flush – on the turn or on the river.

The Suited Flop

If the flop contains three suited cards then someone could already have a made flush, with the two cards in their hand. These types of flops are very dangerous if you have hit part of it, but not the flush. Your hand is also under threat by players who might have just one spade in their hand and are drawing to a flush.

The Paired Flop

Whenever the board shows a pair, the possible hands available increases to include full houses and four of a kinds. Therefore you should immediately realize that your opponent’s could be holding these big hands.

There are many more types of flops, such as trip flops, straight flops, and so on. The important thing to remember is that you analyze the texture of the flop at all times. It’s free information and is available for all to see – so don’t ignore it. In fact, the texture of the flop should heavily influence how you play a hand.

Knowing Your Best Hand

In order to be properly prepared for playing poker it’s essential that you can read the board and work out your best possible hand. It’s easy to do, yet even experienced players make mistakes and mis-read boards from time to time.

Example #1

The best hand you can make here would  for a full house.

Example #2

In this example you’re best hand is  for a King-high flush.

Example #3

In this example your best hand is  for a straight. You could use one of the 4′s in your hand but it doesn’t make any difference because you’re effectively “playing the board”.

The Nuts

The term “the nuts” means you have an unbeatable hand based on the board. When playing poker you should always think about what your opponents might have, so it’s important that you can read the board to work out what the nuts might be.

See if you can work out which starting hands would give the nuts in the following examples:

Example #1

This board doesn’t contain any pairs and only two suited cards. The best possible hand would be a straight, for anyone holding 10-7 (suited or unsuited). It would give a straight of 6789T. What would be the second best hole cards? That would be 7-5, giving a lower straight of 56789.

Example #2

The nuts on this board would be four of a kind since the board is paired. Anyone holding  would have quads. What would be the second nut hand? Well since there are also a pair of 6’s on the board, anyone holding  would have the second nuts.

Example #3

The board isn’t paired and there are only two suited cards, so we can discount a flush or better. A straight is also impossible since there are too many gaps to fill. The best hand here would be pocket Kings, giving a set. The second best would be pocket Jacks, for a lower set.

Understanding the Strength of Your Hand

Sometimes the board can render those two private cards that you’ve been dealt as absolutely priceless, or absolutely worthless, or somewhere in-between. You must learn to read the board and fully understand the relative strength of your hand and what potential opportunities or dangers lay ahead.

Let’s revisit the example hands we used earlier and determine how strong your hand really is.

Example #1

You have a full house, but you could be losing to players with the following hole cards: TT, JJ, JT, T3, T2, and 33. So while you have a full house, your hand is only the eighth best hand available. You still have a strong hand, but it’s by no means the nuts.

Example #2

You have a flush but you could be losing to any player who is holding the ,  or . Therefore you have the fourth best hand based on this board.

Example #3

You are “playing the board” which shows a straight. But you would lose to any players holding a single 8 for the higher straight. Any player with an 8 would be in very big trouble if someone else had 8-9 in the hole for the nut straight.

SWOT Analysis

In the business world it’s common to perform a SWOT analysis of a company, and SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Well, we can take this approach to poker too. Let’s look at some example starting hands and flops, and perform a SWOT analysis on them.

Example #1

• Strengths – You have flopped a set of 7’s, a very strong hand.
• Weaknesses – Well you don’t have the nuts, as this would be a player holding K-K, but you have the 2nd nuts – so there’s no real weakness at this stage.
• Opportunities – Your hand can still improve. Another 7 would give you quads, and a 5 or K on the turn or river would give a full house.
• Threats – The biggest threat to your hand is another club on the turn or river, which could make someone else a flush. While a King would give you a full house, it could also give someone else a bigger full house (i.e. if they were holding K-5 or K-7).

Example #2

• Strengths – You have flopped an open ended straight draw (5678), and a flush draw. Put simply, you’ve flopped a great drawing hand.
• Weaknesses – The weakness is that you need to hit. If the hand stopped here you have nothing but 8 high and would certainly be beaten.
• Opportunities – This hand offers great opportunities, and the best outcome would be to hit a 4 or 9 on the turn or river for the straight, as this would give you the nuts (if it isn’t a spade).
• Threats – While this hand gives a flush draw, it would be a low flush and therefore vulnerable to a higher flush. While a flush is better than a straight, the straight would place your hand in a stronger position. The lesson here is that you don’t always want the highest possible poker hand ranking for yourself, but to have one better than your opponents.

Example #3

• Strengths – It’s a rainbow flop and you have a pair of aces, the highest pair available.
• Weaknesses – Your kicker is weak. You could be losing to a lot of hands. Even though you hold suited cards, there is no possibility of hitting a flush.
• Opportunities – Another Ace would give you trips and another 5 would bring two pair.
• Threats – Due to the weak kicker this hand is always vulnerable and could get you into a lot of trouble. This is a prime example of why playing Ace-rag is not a good starting hand, because you never really know where you are.

From Nuts to Nowhere!

Let’s imagine you’re playing poker and the following happens:

What’s your hand at this point? Well, you have flopped the nuts with an Ace high straight. If you were to perform a SWOT analysis at this stage it would be very healthy. The only slight danger is the potential flush draw. Let’s imagine you bet and get called, and the turn brings:

You no longer have the nuts because the board is now paired. Let’s imagine you still believe you’re winning and you get to see the river card:

This is a terrible river card. Not only does the river bring another club, meaning a possible flush, it also double pairs the board. You’re now losing if any of your opponents have just a single Queen or Jack, or two clubs. You’d also be losing if someone held TT, let alone a pair of Jacks or Queens for quads.

Conclusion

The above hand example just goes to show how important it is to read the board and understand the strength of your own hand based on the information available to you. Remember that the more experience you have playing poker, the quicker and easier it will be to read the board and assess the relative strength of your hand.

Even experienced poker players make mistakes from time to time. As a beginner to poker you might mis-read the board every now and again – but it’s natural to make mistakes when you’re learning new skills. Just be aware of the texture of the flop at all times and use the information available to you – and use it wisely.