Update: Did you know I have a poker tells video series? Check it out here.
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In the past couple of weeks (November 2012), I played a few sessions of live $1-2 NLHE with the purpose of studying what poker tell information was the most important and relevant. It’d been a while since I played $1-2 (haven’t been playing much at all lately with the exception of some $2-5 and the occasional $100+ tournament), so I was kind of curious what I’d find.
Before getting to the tells, a few caveats about using tells in a live $1-2 NLHE game:
- Playing in these games reminded me that, for your average live $1-2 player, thinking about poker tells is far from the best use of their time. Not that poker tells aren’t present; they are, but most players’ time would be much better spent studying some basic strategies and not looking for tells. So if you’re a struggling live $1-2 player, long before doing something like reading one of my books on poker tells, or getting my video series, I’d instead recommend reading a basic strat book like Dan Harrington on Cash Games, James Sweeney’s Dynamic Full Ring Poker, or Ed Miller’s Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em. I mention this mainly because I think there are many $1-2 players who think they are better than they are, and who need a lot of work put in on basic strategy. Only when you are a decent winner at $1-2 would I recommend spending a good amount of time thinking about tells/behavior.
- Looking for poker tells can often have limited use in a game where players often do weird, goofy, illogical things, which can often be common in a live $1-2 game. For example, getting a read that a player has a weak hand doesn’t do you much good if that player is weirdly going to give a lot of action with that hand. A lot of players at live $1-2 will passively call off a lot of chips with a pair and a draw, or even just a draw, even if they wouldn’t bet it themselves. Many players also overvalue hands like AK and AQ, and will put a lot of chips in pre-flop with those hands. (Of course, there are also a lot of nitty players at these stakes, too, so noticing player tendencies/styles is important.)
- I usually say that post-bet tells, when they come after significant bets, are the most important tells to look for. But there are a lot of very passive players at lower stakes who only make big bets when they have strong hands. For these types of players, there are no real post-bet tells to speak of, reducing a lot of the kinds of tells you might be using more frequently in higher-stakes games where players are more aggressive/active. For many passive players, you can forget about studying them for post-bet tells, just because the likelihood of them ever making a significant bluff is highly unlikely. (This also emphasizes the idea that aggressive players are best to study for tells because you’ll see them in a lot of pots.)
Decision points
Let’s look at some of the most important decision points where tells can help play a role in your average live $1-2 NLHE game (with a good amount of passive/tight players):
Let’s look at some of the most important decision points where tells can help play a role in your average live $1-2 NLHE game (with a good amount of passive/tight players):
• Deciding when to continuation bet with weak hands in multi-way pots
• Deciding when to bluff the turn
• Deciding when to bluff the river
• Deciding when to bluff the turn
• Deciding when to bluff the river
Most of these spots will boil down to fundamental strategy and player tendencies. But every once in a while a poker tell can help you out in one of these spots.
Studying poker tells can be quite valuable for low-stakes players, not so much for the purposes of spotting other people’s tells, but because they’ll help you prevent leaking your own tells. Knowing the common ways information can be leaked will help you become unreadable. And I think this is the best reason for lower stakes players to study tells.
Most important tells
So what poker tells are most important at your average live $1-2 game?
So what poker tells are most important at your average live $1-2 game?
• Immediate calls
• Taking a long time to check when weak
• Defensive chip handling when weak
• After cards arrive, staring at board when weak
• Taking a long time to check when weak
• Defensive chip handling when weak
• After cards arrive, staring at board when weak
These are mostly waiting-for-action tells, as opposed to post-bet tells, which makes sense as you’ll usually be dealing with players who aren’t betting that much and who are instead more passive and doing a lot of calling. I’ll explain these all in order and give a couple examples.
Immediate calls
Immediate calls are one of the most useful bet-timing tells. When someone makes an immediate call, it means they’ve quickly decided not raise. Because players with strong hands tend to at least consider a raise (even if they end up calling), this means almost all immediate calls are made with weak and medium-strength hands and draws. This tell is rampant in low-stakes games.
Immediate calls are one of the most useful bet-timing tells. When someone makes an immediate call, it means they’ve quickly decided not raise. Because players with strong hands tend to at least consider a raise (even if they end up calling), this means almost all immediate calls are made with weak and medium-strength hands and draws. This tell is rampant in low-stakes games.
For instance, in a few hands, players called my continuation-bet on the flop immediately. This tells me that, almost all of the time, they are on the weaker side of their range. If I am bluffing or semi-bluffing, I will continue bluffing on the turn most of the time with this read. For example, I raise pre-flop with KJo and get heads-up. The board is T -7-4 rainbow. I bet and the player immediately calls. I will usually continue betting the turn and maybe even the river, because I think the player will most often have, at most, a ten, and often a lot of hands like 99 and 88 or 98.
I would also you want to be choosy about who you’re attempting to bluff. I wouldn’t want to do this against a calling station, because you could be completely correct in reading them for a weak hand but they still may call you down or even just shove in with their hand. So you want to ideally be focusing on players you know are capable of folding.
Also, board texture is a factor in understanding immediate calls. For more aggressive players, immediate calls will also mean that it’s very unlikely they have a strong flush draw. For example, you continuation-bet a board of Kh 9h 3s and your opponent immediately calls you. If this player is capable of bluffing at all, this immediate call will make strong draws like Ax of hearts and QT of hearts very unlikely, because that player would probably at least consider a raise, even if he ended up deciding to call. So in a lot of cases, immediate calls can help you define a player’s range a bit more than usual.
Taking a long time to check when weak
Some players will take a long time to check to the aggressor when they hold weak hands. Don’t use this tell generally, though, because most players will vary their bet- and check-timing enough (both consciously and because there can be a lot of thought-inducing situations with many different types of hands) that it’s hard to get a good read. But against some players it can be very useful information.
Some players will take a long time to check to the aggressor when they hold weak hands. Don’t use this tell generally, though, because most players will vary their bet- and check-timing enough (both consciously and because there can be a lot of thought-inducing situations with many different types of hands) that it’s hard to get a good read. But against some players it can be very useful information.
For example, let’s say a player calls your pre-flop raise, hits a medium pair on the flop, checks to you and calls your flop bet. The turn card comes, doesn’t improve him, and he then takes like ten seconds to check to you. Whereas if he had a top-pair hand or better, where he knew he was probably going to be calling, he would only take a couple of seconds to check.
I’m not saying this is extremely useful information, because sometimes, with a medium-strength hand, $1-2 players will call you anyway. It’s going to be mainly useful against the most nitty players; the ones you know are scared to carry on without very strong hands. Those are the ones who you might bet off the hand on the turn if you get some sense of weakness.
Along with taking a long time to check, a player might look very studious in studying the board, as if trying to figure out what to do. That combined behavior is usually a sign of a vulnerable hand. As is the following tell, which you can sometimes see in concert with these:
Defensive chip handling when weak
The gist of this one is that players will often try to make you think they’re interested in calling by handling their chips in a defensive manner when it’s your turn to act. They might hold their chips in their hand, as if ready to put them in. They might start cutting out chips as if ready to call. Basically, any chip handling action that looks vaguely defensive in nature, even if it’s quite subtle, is usually a sign that the player holds a vulnerable hand. When a player holds a strong hand, they want to give no impediment to your bet, no matter how small.
The gist of this one is that players will often try to make you think they’re interested in calling by handling their chips in a defensive manner when it’s your turn to act. They might hold their chips in their hand, as if ready to put them in. They might start cutting out chips as if ready to call. Basically, any chip handling action that looks vaguely defensive in nature, even if it’s quite subtle, is usually a sign that the player holds a vulnerable hand. When a player holds a strong hand, they want to give no impediment to your bet, no matter how small.
This is a very useful one; it’s one that came up a handful of times in hands I was in, making me feel better about making a large river bluff. In one hand in particular, I had been betting first to act on the flop and turn, and I thought it was quite possible my opponent had flopped the flush draw. When a low flush card came on the river, I probably usually would have given up on the bluff, except for the fact I saw him riffling his chips in his hand while he stared at me (staring at an opponent when they’re waiting to act can also be a sign of weakness), so I bet $100 and he folded.
Two other hands went down very similarly to that. In one three-bet pot, where I’d three-bet and whiffed with AQ, an opponent called the flop, but I pushed all-in on a turn of 9JK3 based on my opponent grabbing his chips and holding them up defensively as he checked to me. It wasn’t usually a spot I would have felt so comfortable in.
Again, even if this tell is only 75% reliable, that’s still a great reason to carry through on a bluff that’s already got a lot of logic behind it; in my experience, though, this tell is more reliable than that for most players.
Staring at hole cards and board cards when weak
When players stare at cards, whether it’s their own hole cards or the board cards, it will generally mean they don’t have a strong hand. I had forgotten how much the staring-at-cards when weak type of tells apply to low stakes.
When players stare at cards, whether it’s their own hole cards or the board cards, it will generally mean they don’t have a strong hand. I had forgotten how much the staring-at-cards when weak type of tells apply to low stakes.
Why is this a pattern? Players who look at strong hands tend to look away quickly. There’s an instinct to “hide their treasure” from their enemies or competitors. This accounts for the common tendency of players to look at pocket aces and immediately put them down. Whereas players with weak hands don’t have a reason to look away.
Pre-flop, this can be useful when you spot limpers or players behind you looking for a second or two or longer at their cards. When you see this, and if you’ve decided it’s a reliable tell for those players, you can choose to become more aggressive in the hand. For example, you see a few limpers staring at their cards before they call, and you decide to raise pre-flop lighter than you normally would. Or you see a late-position player staring at his cards for a few seconds and he ends up raising. You might decide to call him or 3-bet him lighter than normal.
Of course, players are still capable of calling you with their weaker hands, and then you’ll have to play some post-flop poker. But because the read is generally reliable (and sometimes very reliable for some specific players), you’ll be putting yourself in a lot of profitable post-flop situations where a flop bet will often take down the pot.
Sometimes players look back at their hole cards after the flop, too, and the longer they look at their cards the more it becomes likely they’re weak.
For communal cards, it’s the same basic idea: players who connect well (like top pair or better) tend to look away from the board when the cards come out. This can be seen as an involuntarily, unconscious attempt to distract attention away from their “treasure.” Staring at communal cards, with no looking away, will tend to mean the player had no real reason to look away or be thoughtful about the hand.
Playing some $1-2 again, I got back into the habit of trying to watch everyone in the hand during multi-way flops, trying to see if anyone looked away immediately. Mainly I tried to watch the player or players behind me, because that is more valuable information than what the players in front of me do.
For example, in most three-way (or more) pots, if I’m the pre-flop raiser, I usually will shut down if the board comes down pretty scary and I haven’t connected. Like if I raise pre-flop and the board is 9TQ or something similar, I generally check if I raised with 6-7 suited, or AK, or something that missed completely, because those are the types of boards that hit right in the range of most players who call a raise. Whereas on a really dry board, like K-7-3 rainbow, I will usually bet my misses into two other players (but not usually three other players).
But looking for opponents who are staring at the flop can make me feel more comfortable about betting into a multi-way pot. It happened several times in three-way and four-way pots where I wouldn’t usually have bet from a fundamental strategy perspective, but the amount of staring going on by my opponents made me feel safer. Occasionally, I would still get one caller out of the bunch, but that still put me in more profitable spots than not betting, and I felt more confident, based on their staring, that they had weak hands.
Again, this is not something you want to use to make very large decisions. Good players are capable of staring consistently at the flop whether they hit or not. And even for the people who exhibit this tell very reliably, it won’t always be accurate. This will mainly be useful for determining fairly borderline situations, like when you decide to get aggressive and follow through on flop bets in multiway pots, or follow through on turn bets. Or, when you see people looking away from the board cards, for deciding to take a more passive line. There are a lot of fairly borderline situations where checking or betting or raising could go either way, so a little extra information can go a long way.
Conclusions
All in all, I never want to give the impression that tells are something that will let you crush microstakes, or any game for that matter. I think they can give you little hints here and there for the best action to take, but these are often actions that are dictated by fundamental strategy. Occasionally, you can get really obvious signs from some players that dictate a very specific course of action, but you shouldn’t try too hard to look for those spots. Those are spots that will come to you naturally, the more comfortable you get with tells.
All in all, I never want to give the impression that tells are something that will let you crush microstakes, or any game for that matter. I think they can give you little hints here and there for the best action to take, but these are often actions that are dictated by fundamental strategy. Occasionally, you can get really obvious signs from some players that dictate a very specific course of action, but you shouldn’t try too hard to look for those spots. Those are spots that will come to you naturally, the more comfortable you get with tells.
Want to learn more about Poker Tells in $1-2 No-Limit Cash Games?
$1-2 No-Limit Hold’em cash games are one of the most popular forms of poker played today. In this short ebook, Zachary Elwood examines 35 actual $1-2 NLHE hands, finding meaning in opponents’ physical and verbal behavior.
$1-2 No-Limit Hold’em cash games are one of the most popular forms of poker played today. In this short ebook, Zachary Elwood examines 35 actual $1-2 NLHE hands, finding meaning in opponents’ physical and verbal behavior.
The ebook bundle comes with the book in 3 formats: PDF, EPUB, and MOBI (Kindle). (It’s easy to sync third-party files with your Kindle reader.
duckston09
WOW, what a difference in fixed limit poker and no limit poker. People are flooding the casinos to play no limit because they watch no limit on television. If people would take time to learn no limit poker the correct way they would realize how much money there is to be had. So many players like me sit down at the table , and just let the good players take my money. I always played fixed limit in the past but had no idea that no limit is so difficult. It looks easy on television, but when you seat down to play, it becomes the hardest game in the world. For those people who take time to learn to play no limit, are making money like they never dreamed of making. I'll give you an example of what happened to me the first time I played no limit. There were three of us in the pot and after the flop I had a set of 7's. i was going last, so I was in the best position.There were three hearts on the flop. The first and second player checked and I check also. A dead card hit the turn and the first and second player checked into me again. Playing for the first time, I was confused what i should do. I'm in the last position and had no idea what to do. I knew I had to bet, but how much should I bet. I knew someone must have a heart in there hand and I didn't want to give them a free card to see the river. I decide to go all in. I figured if someone was looking for that fourth heart they would be forced to fold. Well, I went all in and one guy called. He already had the king high flush on the flop. I was totally amazed that he check the flop and the turn with a flush. After the hand I was still confused on the way I played the hand. I was told afterwards the correct way I should have played the hand. Can anyone tell me how they would have played the hand. I'm telling you that this game is harder than it looks and when you learn to play the game right, you can make a good buck playing people like me. There are a lot of people like me that sit down at the table and have no idea that they don't have a chance of winning. Maybe get lucky the first time. I went back to playing fixed limit. television has made 1-2 no limit poker a gold mine for many good no limit players. They can sit at a table for eight or ten hours and make $500 to $600 with no problem.
SOOPOO
At worst you had 10 outs out of the 46 remaining cards, even if the player had his flush, to make 4 of a kind or a full house. If the player actually already had a flush, you had 10 outs out of 44 remaining cards. The way you played the hand is not inherently wrong, or right. Were those 2 players previously bluffing? How much was your all in? Were YOU previously playing tight? You obviously misread the flush holder, but perhaps if he had the ace of hearts and king of spades, pairing with the king of hearts on the board, he goes in with you and you win. So don't beat yourself up over this. Consider it the beginning of a long learning curve.
JIMMYFOCKER
Where would Vegas be without the poker boom?
In worse shape?
In worse shape?
odiousgambit
No limit is crazy if you ask me, but here is my 2 cents. It is weak to play with a 7 in your hand unless you had a pair. No limit is so harrowing you might consider not even staying in with a low pair. If two 7's are in the flop and that's how you got your trips, everybody has a pair now and somebody might have a hidden Aces over or even a boat. So, IMHO you never are surprised to lose with a low pair even when it improves. Also, you showed weakness when you first checked. This can make the guy with the flush convinced you were bluffing, especially when a weak card came out ; he would be doubting that it was the card you were looking for, and if it was, all you had was trips. On the other hand, with the flush and the King, he could probably remember even recently losing to the guy with the Ace. His check made sense.
There are no doubt tables on the internet showing what you open with vis a vis the stakes involved. I'd take a look at those.
the next time Dame Fortune toys with your heart, your soul and your wallet, raise your glass and praise her thus: “Thanks for nothing, you cold-hearted, evil, damnable, nefarious, low-life, malicious monster from Hell!” She is, after all, stone deaf. ... Arnold Snyder
P90
Please add some empty lines in long posts, it's too hard to read.There were three of us in the pot and after the flop I had a set of 7's. i was going last, so I was in the best position.There were three hearts on the flop. The first and second player checked and I check also. A dead card hit the turn and the first and second player checked into me again. Playing for the first time, I was confused what i should do. I'm in the last position and had no idea what to do. I knew I had to bet, but how much should I bet. I knew someone must have a heart in there hand and I didn't want to give them a free card to see the river. I decide to go all in.
That could have been a good decision against tight, not very aggressive players. But otherwise:
- By checking before, none of you indicated having a pat flush;
- The turn didn't change your position;
With a scary flop, someone was bound to try a bluff or semi-bluff. Since there was one card left, a draw semi-bluff was expected.
If you weren't playing very aggressively before, an all-in just marked you perfectly. The player with the flush was intentionally waiting for a semi-bluffer to catch, with a flop like that.
Really you were closer to a cold bluff than a semi-bluff even, and that wasn't really worth doing. For a successful bluff, don't send mixed signals. Not that it would have helped here, but still. By raising on the flop, you could get players who missed it to fold, and you'd be aware that the calling player has a hand.
Quote: duckston09
Can anyone tell me how they would have played the hand.
It's too hard to tell. Depends on how loose or tight the table was. Without past information, I would probably just check and see what happens, play for value on the river. Making a small bet (less than half the pot) would do nothing, making a proper bet (pot or more) was inviting trouble. 7 is a low card. Any flush, any higher set would drown you.
A set of sevens is still a bluffcatcher, however, so... Well, once again depends on what I know about other players. If the player with king-flush was a strong one and raised on the river, I's give him credit for actually having a strong hand, likely not a flush, but say a high set. If he's been making bad moves before, a raise on the river could be seen as a bad bluff. Generally, it was a losing situation already, with a slowplayed nut hand in play. You risked too much without a sufficient chance at a payoff.
I'm telling you that this game is harder than it looks and when you learn to play the game right, you can make a good buck playing people like me. There are a lot of people like me that sit down at the table and have no idea that they don't have a chance of winning. Maybe get lucky the first time. I went back to playing fixed limit. television has made 1-2 no limit poker a gold mine for many good no limit players. They can sit at a table for eight or ten hours and make $500 to $600 with no problem.
Well, not so easily... there are runs of luck going down, and there can be other strong players at the table.
But yes, NLH is a very different game from fixed limit. They have similar rules, but Fixed Limit is a game of probabilities, like blackjack, with an element of deception; No Limit is a game of outright intimidation. Basic probability understanding, as learned in FL, still plays a major role, but it's only one of the tools that need to be employed.
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P90
It is weak to play with a 7 in your hand unless you had a pair. No limit is so harrowing you might consider not even staying in with a low pair. If two 7's are in the flop and that's how you got your trips, everybody has a pair now and somebody might have a hidden Aces over or even a boat.
'Flopping a set of 7s' means he had a pair already - even if not distinguishing between a set and trips, since the flop was all hearts, there could be just one 7 there.
77 was an acceptable hand to play, at least in position, but his out was a dry flop with a 7; when the flop came suited, the set became weaker than the middle pair was in the first place.
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DJTeddyBear
Here's my advice. Mind you, hind-sight is 20/20.Going all-in sends a very specific message: You do NOT want any callers, because you either have a hand like what you have and are afraid of someone drawing a flush, or you have flush and are afraid of drawing a better flush, or you have the nuts and are afraid someone with a set will boat up. Either way, going all in on the turn, after checking the flop, usually rules out the nut flush. This tells the player with the king high flush that his hand is probably the best.
If you had the ace high flush, you'd make a reasonable bet, right on the flop, trying to get paid off. If you had the Ace high draw, you might bet just to build the pot hoping to get another heart. In your case, you should have been afraid of the flush, but bet a few bucks to get an idea of where you stand, as well as to build the pot so you're paid off if the board pairs.
Mind you, your hand is NOT great. a set of 7's is easily beaten not just by the flush, but by a higher set, or even a straight. Were there straight cards out there?
My advice: Find a poker league in your area. They generally play in bars and restaurants. They are free, but you're kinda expected to patronize the venue.
The key is, in the league, you're able to ask questions, and get honest answers. You can never be sure of the answers you get in a casino from the people that are trying to take your money.
I invented a few casino games. Info: http://www.DaveMillerGaming.com/ ————————————————————————————————————— Superstitions are silly, childish, irrational rituals, born out of fear of the unknown. But how much does it cost to knock on wood? ?
FinsRule
I don't think there is much you could have done with that hand. Let's say the flop was 4, 7, J all hearts. Besides the flush, you have the 2nd best hand.
The guy with the King flush is pretty much committed to staying in the hand all in unless the board pairs or a fourth heart comes up.
If you bet $20 after the flop, he's probably calling.
The turn is a blank, you bet $20-$40 again, he's either calling you or raising you. If he raises you, do you think you're strong/smart enough to fold a set of 7's against his flush? I'm not, which is why I play limit.
Basically, I'm trying to say that maybe you weren't going to lose your whole stack that hand, but you'd have to be the smartest player ever not to lose any money that hand.
The guy with the King flush is pretty much committed to staying in the hand all in unless the board pairs or a fourth heart comes up.
If you bet $20 after the flop, he's probably calling.
The turn is a blank, you bet $20-$40 again, he's either calling you or raising you. If he raises you, do you think you're strong/smart enough to fold a set of 7's against his flush? I'm not, which is why I play limit.
Basically, I'm trying to say that maybe you weren't going to lose your whole stack that hand, but you'd have to be the smartest player ever not to lose any money that hand.
MathExtremist
Where would Vegas be without the poker boom?
In worse shape?
In worse shape?
Only marginally. Poker isn't a major moneymaker for casinos - they don't bank the action. Same for bingo, for what it's worth -- I've had operators tell me that bingo is basically break-even for them, and it's really just to get players in the casino to play slots between breaks. I wouldn't be surprised if drop on other table games went up as a result of poker players, and that generating more revenue than the poker room itself.
'In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice.' -- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
WizardofEngland
I play no-limit exclusively, mainly because limit is too slow paced for my style.I am tight aggressive, passive pre-flop, aggressive post-flop.
Preflop if I have premium I am raising 3x the BB plus 1 for every caller. Speculative hands like 77, or suited connectors I am just calling in position.
How Many People Win At 1 2 No Limit Poker
Best 1-2 No Limit Poker Vegas
Postflop I am always betting 75% of the pot if I still like my hand. I only check raise/call when I have a monster.1 2 No Limit Poker Strategy
I think you could of avoiding going broke by not bgoing all-in. Think about what sort of hands are going to call an all-in. Your looking at a higher set, or a made hand. The expected value in going all-in there is very low. You might of got away if you had bet 50-75% of the pot, and the flush had raised.1 2 No Limit Poker Rules
http://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/general/10042-woes-black-sheep-game-ii/#post151727