Questions on Caro's tells

[William Wilson]

To everyone with substantial experience,

How accurate is this book? If you could keep one tell -- other than the weak-means-strong and strong-means-week staple -- which would it be?

Also, I feel a massive hole in this book is that it fails to inform the reader how to minimize YOUR tells against good readers.

Is it profitable to work in reverse of common tells when studied by advanced players, or is it better to simply train yourself to be consistent and stoic?

Regards,
William (newbie)

[trillig]

I looked at that book the other day and I wish the pictures were at least taken in the last 30 years (ie. in color), it's badly in need of revision, I think.

I would definitely try some false tells at the table, just another way to mix up your play/opponents.

-t

[LetsRock]

[ QUOTE ]
I would definitely try some false tells at the table, just another way to mix up your play/opponents.



[/ QUOTE ]

Not to be contradictory, but I would think this to be bad advice in general. Occasionally doing some "acting" may not hurt you, but habitually "acting" will likely get you into more trouble than good.

Good players will pick up on your false tells very quickly and make you pay for it; weak players won't even be aware of tells enough for it to be beneficial anyway.

Anytime you start acting "unnaturally" you risk exposing something that you're not aware of.

I would advise that you develop a routine that helps to prevent unusual movement instead of developing "acts".

[bernie]

let's rock had a good response.

1st off. make sure your game has a very strong foundation of the basics before really delving deep into this. tell play is a small part of any profit you make. it's also more beneficial in no limit than limit. but it can be used in limit quite a bit.

"How accurate is this book? "

understand that this book is about ideas for spotting tells. not definitive. a tell from one player may mean completely opposite for another and mean nothing from a 3rd player.

"If you could keep one tell -- other than the weak-means-strong and strong-means-week staple -- which would it be?"

neither. why would one be better/worse than the other?

"Also, I feel a massive hole in this book is that it fails to inform the reader how to minimize YOUR tells against good readers. "

it's kind of obvious. reread letsrock's post.

looking for your own tells will help you see tells in others. especially once you understand 'why' the tell is surfacing. how to minimize? spot your own and stop doing them. also note why you're doing them. this can help in realizing why others do it. experience is the best exercise. the more hardened to the game, the more bad beats, the more you see the less you should be affected by what will happen during a course of the hand. take away any emotional attachment to the pot or hand on all streets. (easier said than done) the toughest players ive played do this very well. after all, any information given is still information.

"Is it profitable to work in reverse of common tells when studied by advanced players, or is it better to simply train yourself to be consistent and stoic?"

be consistent. one tell that is common is bet speed. make your bet speeds the same regardless of your hand. you may notice some players put chips in at different rates. (sometimes this also means nothing) sometimes if they put it in a little fast, with little thought, you kind of know they have something good. note that against these players, once you confirm the before-mentioned, you can use it against them to some degree. same with betting patterns. one example is sometimes you'll notice you put in a bet too fast and hope nobody caught it.

dont act on a possible tell unless youve confirmed a pattern for when it happens. some can be confirmed much quicker than others. (this is helped along if you recognize 'why' they did it) but you can get into it too much to where you're seeing stuff that isnt there. then you're hosed.

lastly, remember the 1st rule. to decide whether they are acting or not. many arent, especially at the lower limits. recreational/casual players can be very obvious when they are acting, but many dont. then it's a matter of why they are doing it. excited, afraid to kill action, obvious bluff, etc.

to understand tells the best is to understand the player. but again, have your fundamentals down before really delving into this. that's where the great percentage of the profits are going to come from.

have fun with it.

hope this helps a little

b

[William Wilson]

It's helped a lot. Thanks.

[trillig]

Oh I agree with you, these fakes would be mixed up like mad, not one I'd try all the time, you're not really there to make money off other good players anyhow. 8) I'm not going to get all phoney baloney over the top in this regard or advise it, but some light tells on occasion is ok with me.

I especially like the stare down tell... mix it up and use that one... I know someone on here who uses that one with much success.
[stare them down when you have a hand, and get called, a few times... then pull a timely bluff with it later...]

I have had some real long evil stares before, usually when I sent in all my chips in a tournament and they couldn't call. I'm likely to make goofy looks back now, and I have plenty of those. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

-t