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Twitchy Eyes and Flared Nostrils – Reading Tells
I’m going to let you in on a little secret here. If you believe that watching for a twitchy eye or a flared nostril is what poker is all about — you’re wrong. Many newer poker players are preoccupied with the notion that bluffing and the ability to discover tells are what it’s all about.
I often hear someone say something like, “Oh, I could never be a good poker player. I have a terrible poker face.” Or, “I wouldn’t be very good at poker. I just can’t tell a lie, so I wouldn’t be able to bluff with a straight face.”
Well, if you believe that, this column should be a pleasant awakening. While it is important to avoid giving away too much information with your body language, tell recognition is nowhere near as essential as learning what reading a player really means. What separates average and good players from great ones is their hand-reading ability; the skill of processing information that you’ve gathered from your opponent in past hands, and using that information in the current hand. Picking up on your opponents’ betting patterns and understanding what they are and aren’t capable of doing, makes this much easier. So, when you hear people talk about “reading people,” what it really comes down to is reading into your opponent’s mind what he is thinking at the moment, and trying to figure out how he would play various situations.
So don’t be paranoid of or obsessed with tells. That’s not where your focus should lie. Having said all this, I should probably point out that what you say, or what you do with your eyes and hands, can be giveaways to the strength of your holding. Great players watch almost everything, and many do have an innate ability to read body language. You don’t ever want to dismiss tells from your poker repertoire, but you just might be better off putting less emphasis on their importance.
And speaking of poker faces; one part of the face that comes into play are the eyes, especially when they are used effectively in the form of a stare. In the real world, staring is considered impolite, but at a poker table it’s an acceptable tool.
Now, I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I will anyway. Staring is simply a scare tactic used by many pros to make you feel uncomfortable. Think about it: When you make a bet (whether it’s a bluff or not) and your opponent calls immediately, it’s usually not intimidating. But what if he takes ample time to stare you down and counts out his chips making it look like he’s going to raise? Now, that might make you sweat a bit, especially if you are indeed bluffing! At the very least you’ll be uncomfortable having a guy stare at you for so long. It’s all a ploy.
Most often, a player knows exactly what he’s going to do within five seconds. You’ll see it on the World Poker Tour telecasts quite often, thanks to the hidden cameras. There was a hand at the World Poker Open tournament in which Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot made a play with the 5 2 . The player he had raised moved all in, and David went into the tank (meaning he took a substantial amount of time pondering whether or not to call the bet)! Why did he do this? After all, he is an experienced pro, and knew full well that he wasn’t going to call the all-in raise, so why waste all that time. Devilfish wanted to scare him. He wanted him to think that if he ever tried to bluff him, he would have to face the full five-minute stare-down all over again.
I have a simple rule when I’m being stared down: The tougher my opponent, the less I’ll do. If I believe I’m up against an average or weak player, I may send out some false tells and basically try to manipulate his decision in my favor. I may even make a comment, it just depends on what I think I need to do to manipulate his mind. A great player can usually read through that act, though, so you don’t want to give him anything. If you give him nothing and he still tells you he can “see through your soul,” don’t sweat it; I assure you it’s just another scare tactic.
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