Your eyes aren’t giving you away

A lot of people new to poker are very nervous about their physical tells. While it is important not to have any obvious tells, you should be more concerned with your betting patterns. I rarely pick up obvious physical tells on opponents. Of course I watch body language and look at reactions to what is going on, but more often than not I can get a read on a hand by how my opponent bets.

Many times people new to the game will focus very hard on making “proper” bets. They may have read a book that explained all the different hands and the proper way to play them. Well, if you always play the hand “properly” by making “correct” bets and raises, your play becomes very obvious.

Example: I play in a game with someone who plays very tight aggressive. He will always make a substantial raise with A9-AK, but he’ll only call with AA or KK. His play is usually very obvious. On the flop he’ll check-raise with AA and if he misses with his “big ace” he’ll make a continuation bet and hope to win the pot.

So what do I do? I reraise him no matter what to see his reaction. I’ll make a minimum raise and he’ll either push all in, fold, or call. If he moves all in I figure he has me beat. If he calls, he must have missed the flop and can’t lay down AK.

Notice that all the information I need is in his betting patterns - I’m not looking at his face or looking for the vein in his neck. I’m just paying attention to the fundamentals of poker.

How do I combat my own betting patterns? I try to disguise them. I’ll raise with any hand I’m dealt if the situation is right. I’ll limp with any hand as well. I never want my opponents to know what I have preflop. I vary my bet sizes and focus on being random but smart. Random does not mean reckless.

If you can learn to pick up betting patterns you’ll be well on your way to reading hands. Focus on physical tells when you understand the basics of what people are doing!

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