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does anyone have a line on what it usually means when one of the blinds call a raise and then say I check dark? This happens at least once a session.

In my experience, it is a marginal hand that wants to see if anyone hits or not.

I guess one spot would be a slowplay AA in the BB vs. a BTN steal.

Happens quite a bit in my game too.
It's usually never a slowplayed monster. Seems to be a garbage type BB hand more often then not.
If someone checks dark you can bet basically any 2 and usually take it down.

In my experience, it is a marginal hand that wants to see if anyone hits or not.

+1

A player's focus (in the hand or in a conversation).....especially if the players are chatter boxes or drinking/socializing. Great hand/flop = Immediate hyper-focus on the table/cards.....and it is obvious that they are only politely pretending (i.e. 1/2 smiles/nods) that they are still in their previous conversation.....but trying to focus on the hand/players/flop.
......This tell can easilly get lost/ignored at a full table that is very active with people socializing, drinking, and laughing.


Also, I read another suggestion someplace (don't remember where).....to only try to keep the hyper-focus on one or two players and their reactions/tells. It is still possible to pay attention to all players....but I try to learn at least one or two things about an individual player. Maybe make handwritten notes later (as in HEM). For me, it is really fun people watching. One of the side benefits of playing poker.

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One of the reverse tells that I use with a lot of success (with nuts or close). Some maniac keeps raising me/everyone -- as I am kind of an easy read, because I am normally super tight (unless drinking).
1. check (for me, if I raise, they fold).
2. maniac predictably raises everyone/me.
3. I give an immediate (prepared) but natural body reaction (animated frustration) and say....
"Again???!!!!!! What the Heck! STOP raising me. LET ME PLAY!" A little hollywood pause (thinking)...... and shove like totally frustrated and tired of being bullied.

It surprises me how often they pay me off (if they have some kind of hand). This works even better if I happen to be drinking (and being overly animated that night). They think I have finally decided to play poker and gamble.....and they almost always pay. Amazing.....especially when the word is "Don't pay (sneakers) if he raises". lol but they keep paying me. amazing

You can decide whether you think this borders on angle shooting, but a lot of players, esp. regs, know to look left to see if someone is going to raise (because they are constantly peeling light with crap and it's an obvious tell to pick up on), so I will generally hold my hand as if I am ready to muck, regardless of whether I have air or flopped big.

Also, if you're only going to watch only one or two players, watch the loosest players, because those are the players where tells are most likely to be useful (because they are who you should be trying to play pots with).

Speaking of things you can only do once, this one is really good and will work if you are ready for it - its for playing live cash NL...sometime you will make a big river bet and a "live pro" type guy is going to expose his hand to you before he decides what to do. If you are ready for this possibility you can immediately react to get what you want, what you have to do is if you are bluffing exclaim "dealer that's a call right?" and if you have it say "dealer that hand is dead". The trick is you have to do it in tempo so it doesn't look like you are capable of leveling him, more like its just an honest reaction to the shock of seeing his cards.

Damn. Will be using this, thanks.

Might sound ridiculous and I have no way of proving it, but when you are bluffing, put your money in as one big stack, and when you are value betting put it in split up - either as two stacks or two stacks underneath a third stack, or three stacks, w/e.

It's not a huge deal - it's not like it's a game-changer or anything like that. But from my own experience, bets just "feel" a bit larger and more threatening when they enter the pot as one big stack as opposed to broken up. The visual is just more powerful as one stack. Obviously this is totally irrational, but we are all irrational by our very nature. Our subconscious makes quick, intuitive judgements, and these unconscious processes have a much larger effect on our and others' behavior than we are aware of.

It's something small, but small differences accumulated over large samples results in more money.

This happened to me last night, not sure if this has happened to any of you guys.
While shuffling chips (while involved in a hand) the dealer mistook it as a check, whereas actually I was trying to figure out how much was in the pot, and size my bet.

Granted I just said to her " I didn't check" and she apologized and put the action on me.

does anyone have a line on what it usually means when one of the blinds call a raise and then say I check dark? This happens at least once a session.

In my experience, I see people doing this with trashy 'pray I flop huge' type hands. Suited kings, tiny pocket pairs, etc. The kind of hand that they either miss and dump, or plan to check/raise anyway.

My experience is that they do it just for the hell of it with whatever they called with.

Might sound ridiculous and I have no way of proving it, but when you are bluffing, put your money in as one big stack, and when you are value betting put it in split up - either as two stacks or two stacks underneath a third stack, or three stacks, w/e.

It's not a huge deal - it's not like it's a game-changer or anything like that. But from my own experience, bets just "feel" a bit larger and more threatening when they enter the pot as one big stack as opposed to broken up. The visual is just more powerful as one stack. Obviously this is totally irrational, but we are all irrational by our very nature. Our subconscious makes quick, intuitive judgements, and these unconscious processes have a much larger effect on our and others' behavior than we are aware of.

It's something small, but small differences accumulated over large samples results in more money.

phallic symbol?

You can decide whether you think this borders on angle shooting, but a lot of players, esp. regs, know to look left to see if someone is going to raise (because they are constantly peeling light with crap and it's an obvious tell to pick up on), so I will generally hold my hand as if I am ready to muck, regardless of whether I have air or flopped big.

Very interesting, you wouldn't need to bother with a card protector that way either. Is there any draw backs to this? I swear I've giving away tons of tells from my hands.

Alot of people say stuff like this, I totally disagree, although it varies how much it applies. I was at a tournament table where like half the players happened to have the same tell where they would hold their cards ready to pitch them when they were gonna fold, so when I glanced around and saw it I would just raise trash hands and take it down over and over, and really chipped up that way, at some tables tells are less obvious, while at some tables they are broadcasting super important info almost every hand.

This works very well if you manage to somehow tilt the whole table. As Mike Caro said, people give off more reliable and frequent tells when they're tilted.

How about the newbies who when in the blinds automatically look at their cards before the action is on them? These folks are giving away all kinds of information about their hand. When they are weak sometimes they wont put a chip on the cards because they are going to just muck them to a raise anyway. Sometimes they will hold their cards in a pre folding motion too. When they are strong they will study and focus on the action on each player. Keep their hand protected and be waiting like a kid who has to wait his turn to get his ice cream cone. So don't look at your cards until it is your turn because some players are watching you.

You don't look at your cards, and still have enough time to figure out what to do when the action is on you? I suppose if you thought about what you'd do with every hand before the action gets to you, it might help.

Might sound ridiculous and I have no way of proving it, but when you are bluffing, put your money in as one big stack, and when you are value betting put it in split up - either as two stacks or two stacks underneath a third stack, or three stacks, w/e.

Interesting; for many, the visual represetation is more important than the actual amount of chips their, since it's their first impression. I've noticed that 40 $5 look a lot stronger than 2 $100; it may be wise to try and collect smaller and bigger chips, to use whenever one wants to get the other to call or fold.

Yes. Watch a WSOP final table on ESPN. They almost never look at their hole cards until the action is on them. They are too busy studying their opponents.

Very interesting, you wouldn't need to bother with a card protector that way either. Is there any draw backs to this? I swear I've giving away tons of tells from my hands.

I think you should still be protecting your cards regardless. I hold my hands on my cards until the action is on me, but I still put a chip on them if I decide to play my hand.
It doesn't happen a ton, but people do still manage to accidently table a card (or both) while making bets etc.

Overprotecting your hand is one of those tells I've found to be somewhat common.
There was a girl at my table a few weeks ago that had put a half a stack of chips on her cards. She definitely played that hand like she had a big hand. In subsequent hands she only used 1 chip on her cards.

Yes. Watch a WSOP final table on ESPN. They almost never look at their hole cards until the action is on them. They are too busy studying their opponents.

The first time I played live I thought this was the way to do it as well and I wouldn't look at my cards preflop until the action was on me, I was so afraid of giving away tells (rightly so, I was a massive tell box). Then I realized that by doing that, the entire table was watching me look at my cards (and my reaction to them) at the same time--and I was holding up the game. VERY counterproductive, IMO.

I know they do (did) this on High Stakes poker and other TV poker shows, but I consider it silly and annoying to the other players at the $1/$2 game at Harrah's. If everyone did this you'd only get like 20 hands an hour. Just look when everyone else looks, when the dealer finishes dealing.