No we are not saying that body language is the most important nor the most common tell in poker. In fact, the truth is that the best tell is probably the one you read the best. If you see it and use it, that is a good tell.

Body language is the tell most recognized because it incorporates so many aspects of expression that players naturally give off. Unless you are a frozen sculpture, you will move after you see your cards or after that big turn card hits the board. The trick, of course, is to not do the same gesture each time you have good cards or not flinch every time the flop misses you. As with any tell, you are seeking to find a pattern in what your opponent does.

Some players will look away from the flop quickly when it hits them; this is a normal even sub-conscious attempt to give a false clue. They want to appear to be “unconnected” to the flop, when exactly the opposite is true. Moving toward the table in your chair or slouching back away from the table are common tells. “Usually” you move toward what you like and away from what you dislike but be careful, good players often do the opposite to give a false tell. Remember it is the pattern you are looking for. If a player time and time again stares at the flop and then folds-you have a pattern you can use.

Some players change their body language and posture based on the strength of their hands. If they fall into a pattern, you have a perfect tell. Now some opponents may become more attentive when they have a hand, others will act disinterested; what they do is not as important as if they do it consistently. In other words, a “strong” tell for one player might be a “weak” tell for another.

One more observation about body language. There is a difference when a player moves towards the table or cards as opposed to moving towards or away from you. The cards or the pot may well be an attraction but you are an opponent. Movement towards you is meant to intimidate and seldom does a player with a good hand need intimidation. Movement in your direction, no matter how subtle, is a very good sign of a bluff.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Forum Post #102

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“Their” tell is anything your opponent does to give away their hand strength.

“Your” tell is any mannerism you inadvertently repeat that lets the other players know how good your hand is.

There are many, many tells. Your eyes can look the same direction when you have a good hand. Your face my flush when you have a flush. You might bite your lip when you bluff. Some players rush their bets when they have nothing, other players toss their bluffing chips into the pot but place their chips when they have a big hand.

Tells can be in your eyes, on your face, in your nervous legs. There are dozens of tells regarding your chips and if you talk at the table, well those verbal tells are endless and very hard to conceal.

Obviously, the ideal situation is that you get very good at reading other players tells and even better at giving off no tells yourself. You need to practice that poker face and learn to control your breathing and slow down quick hand move to your chips, and stop “tell”ing everyone what you have by talking so much. and … and… and….

Yes, there are endless tells and now for the even worse news, players will give false tells by doing the opposite of what you think their tell means. So the same tell might mean strong hand one time and weak hand the next. But reading players is an important part of the game, we will talk a lot about tells in the next several posts.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Forum Post #101

Low Limit Hold’em is often referred to as “No Fold’em Hold’em”, this refers to the fact that a lot of these games have four, five, six even seven callers before the flop. After the flop a single bet will still have multiple callers. Because these games play very passive and for very low stakes, many players will play almost any two starting cards (No Fold’em) and will stay in for the turn and the river with very poor odds to hit their very long draws to a winning hand.

The problem for good tight players is that their good starting hands will often get run down by these outlandish draws. Many players complain that they can’t beat low limit games because of this loose and passive style of play. It is true that playing good quality hands in such a game will mean your big starting hand will usually need to improve to win. It is true that games like this can be frustrating but imagine I told you that you could be at the table where players would keep putting chips into the pot with 10 to 1, 12 to 1, even 20 to 1 odds to their draws. Wouldn’t want a seat in that game?

Yes in a loose and passive game full of many limpers you will have to lay down some big hands that do not improve but when you do hit a hand those players are going to pay you off every time. If you can’t beat a No Fold’em Hold’em game, you might try working on your patience.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Forum Post #100

There are several sets of what are clearly not uniform poker tournament rules of play. Slowly the various casinos and card rooms around the world are moving towards a set of standardized rules. One such set of rules has been proposed by the Tournament Director’s Association and these are in use in many major tournaments today. We will review these rules, each in a separate post over the next several months. Today TDA Rule #1:

Floor people are to consider the best interest of the game and fairness as the top priority in the decision-making process. Unusual circumstances can on occasion dictate that decisions in the interest of fairness take priority over the technical rules. The floor person’s decision is final.

This rule was moved up to #1 during the most recent TDA rules meeting. It was felt by nearly all members that floor staff needed to have flexibility in applying the rules since unique circumstances can and do occur during the course of tournament play.

The other important point for players to understand is that these rules are not open to debate and that “The floor person’s decision is final.”

It is also important to remember that these rules are by no means universal and many poker tournaments have varying rules. It is always wise to ask about the rules in play for each tournament you enter.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Forum Post #99

In any poker tournament larger than one table there must be a way to combine the remaining participants as players bust out. In large multiple table tournaments this has to handled efficiently and continually during the course of the event. Breaking tables and moving players has become somewhat standardized for major poker tournaments but there are some aspects of the process players should be aware of.

First, it is always good to know when a tournament begins if you are at an early break table or a late breaking table. For instance if 50 tables are seated and you are at table #50, you would certainly want to know if tables are being broken by number. If you are the first table to break then you need not concentrate on getting good reads on your fellow tablemates as you will all be moved as soon as 10 players bustout. By the same reasoning if you are seated at what will be the eventual final table, you know you will not be moving for the entire tournament and valuable reads will become even more important.

Floor staff are usually able to tell you how tables will be broken and it is common for them to break from one end of the room towards the final table area. Be sure you know what the break order is. Now in all fairness, particularly in bigger multi-day events, the order may change during the play. The floor should inform players of those changes but that does not always happen.

Many large tournaments that begin a tournament 10 seated will at some point change to 9 handed play. When that happens, the chair of the busted player (#10) is simply pulled out and the players readjust themselves. When that happens it is a perfect time to recheck with the floor to see if the original break order for tables is still in place. If you make it known that such information is important to you, you will be much more likely to be heard by the floor and informed of any changes.

Discuss some of the intricacies of breaking tables in our online poker forum.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Forum Post #98