Posted by Johnnymac 8:28 PM
One More Note on Tells

Here's another trick that follows closely with my advice to memorize your hole cards.

In the previous post, I made the obvious statement that your cards are never going to change once they're dealt. No matter how many times you look, they aren't going to miraculously morph into AA or AK or JT or 68 or 2 big spades or whatever the hell you might need to win any particular hand. Your cards are your cards and they're not going anywhere.

This brings up another point - the flop isn't going to change either!

This is a rather advanced piece of advice, because you have to know what to be looking for and how to interpret it, but one of the best places to observe a tell in another player is when he sees a card for the first time, whether it's dealt to him or dealt to the board. A very common one of these tells is that a player who likes a newly dealt a card will often glance at his chips or at other players' chips rather quickly after seeing the card. Conversely, a player who doesn't like the new card will stare intently for a long time in the hope that he will either suddenly find a way to make the card fit or similarly, he'll stare at it in hopes that it might change or that he misinterpretted it on first glance. In any case, a quick glimpse away probably means he likes the card and continued staring means he doesn't. Very simple. Like all generic tells, this isn't ironclad, but it does work every now and then and can sometimes make a difference when combined with other information you get from the hand.

So how does this tie in to my previous post? Easy - if you are too busy staring at your own cards on the deal or staring at the flop the instant it rolls off, you are missing a prime opportunity to watch the other players. When I am playing in a casino or cardroom, I try and look at the other players first whenever a card is dealt. The only exeception is when I am under the gun or otherwise first to act - then, I will look at my cards immediately so as not to hold up the speed of the game. (I'm usually not going to be playing my cards from such an early position, anyway, so I don't think I'm losing any value.)

Again, your cards aren't going to change and the flop isn't going to change, so look later - it will still be there in 10 seconds and it will still be the same. You should be looking at the other players first.

And when you do look, memorize the cards and don't look again.

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