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Ten-time world poker champion Phil Hellmuth has an interesting approach to poker. “When I sit down at a poker table, I play a game within the game,” he explains. “I try to guess exactly what two cards my opponent has in the hole. I can usually narrow it down to a very few possibilities, and on occasion I have ventured a guess out loud when I felt confident about it. I’d freak the other players out when I would guess my opponent’s Q-Q. He would flip his Q-Q face up and say, ‘How in the world does he do that?’”
How in the world does Phil do it? In his own words: “Primarily through reading people; observing and deciphering their tells, the nonverbal behaviors that reveal the strength of the cards they’re holding. It is amazing how many poker players, even some worldclass professionals, are unaware that they’re offering tells that render their hands transparent. These individuals might just as well turn their cards face up and give their money away.” In our book, Read ’em and Reap, Phil gives several examples of how reading tells allowed him to win key hands in major tournaments. For example, in a 2001 WSOP event, with two tables remaining, Phil noticed that whenever the player sitting to his right raised, he would lean back in his chair when he was weak (distancing display). Conversely, he would lean forward when he was strong. Picking up on this tell, Phil folded every time his opponent leaned forward. Every time he leaned back, on the other hand, Phil pounced (he reraised and his opponent folded). This allowed Phil to run the table with absolutely nothing in his hand… risk free!
Experiences like these, over the years, led Phil to formulate his tournament poker 70-30 rule: “Success in the game is 70% reading people and only 30% reading the cards (understanding the mathematical and technical aspects of the game).” Wait! Don’t just breeze through that statement; stop and think about it for a while. Consider what it means for how you should be playing poker.
Here’s what I believe: When a competitor of Phil Hellmuth’s caliber concludes from decades of playing experience that “…tells make all the difference…” and postulates a 70-30 rule to underscore his belief, it warrants serious consideration, and provides us with compelling evidence that tells should become a focal point in our own development as a player.
Yet, many players – from novices to professionals – fail to recognize the importance of tells in poker because they subscribe to one or more of the following misconceptions:
(1) Concealing tells is not that important because most people don’t look for them in the first place.
This might have been true years ago, but not today. Currently, there is a growing awareness in the poker community of the critical role of tells in effective play. The popularity of the topic at recent poker seminars and camps speaks to the willingness of players to learn about, and look for, tells in their opponents. As more and more players realize that significant poker success comes from read-ing people, as opposed to knowing how to play the cards, it will only increase the number of competitors who will be watching for tells at the tables.
(2) Even if players did look for poker tells, discovering them wouldn’t provide the kind of information that would help a person win more money at the tables.
Players who believe this statement are tasty morsels on the low end of the food chain. Forget about the card sharks; these individuals are easy prey for poker minnows. At Camp Hellmuth, I give 60 minutes of instruction on spotting tells. With that, my pupils have won thousands at the tables in Las Vegas in a matter of hours. People who make no effort to conceal and/or read tells might just as well give their money away, because they’re in for a major money hemorrhage at the poker tables.
(3) Most players don’t have tells, thus, there’s no need to conceal them.
This is very dangerous thinking because players who don’t think they have tells aren’t going to work at eliminating them. The fact is, we all have tells. Everybody. Pro, amateur, beginner, veteran – it doesn’t matter. No player is devoid of tells, although some individuals have more than others. After watching WPT® and WSOP® televised final tables, I can say this with certainty: Every pro I have observed has at least one major tell (most have multiple tells) that could significantly help anyone “read” their hand strength when playing against them. Take Phil, for example. After I watched him play in a No Limit Hold’em tournament on television, I noted he had a glaring tell. Every time he bluffed, he would wrap his arms around his body in a kind of reassuring hug. The bad news was that his opponents, no doubt, also spotted this nonverbal behavior (low confidence display) and took Phil for a quarter of a million dollars in chips. The good news is that, once I told Phil about his tell, he was able to eliminate it from his repertoire. Now, his hugging days are over!
If professional players like Phil Hellmuth – with decades of experience – still exhibit exploitable tells, just think of how many tells are out there waiting to be “read” in your weekly poker game against amateur or recreational players who are totally unaware of the nonverbal information they are giving away.
I believe the message is clear: If you want to take your poker skills to the highest level and win the most money, you need to learn to read tells in others while concealing your own tells from observant opponents.
Next issue I want to show you how to curtail your own tells at the table – a money-saving strategy I call Concealing not Revealing™. In the meantime, when you play in the coming weeks, notice how your opponents position themselves and change positions at the table (e.g., the location of their feet, arms, torso, and head) before, during and after various hands are played out. This will help you better appreciate my next article in this “Read ’em and Reap™” series.
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