Tells

Just learning to play Holdem, and wondering if looking for tells is really advantagous in the lower limit games. Or should I just be more concerned with my OWN actions?
Thanks for the help, and don't be surprised to see a lot more questions. I gotta lot of em. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

Ernie,

You will find that when playing in the lower limits you will know exactly where you're standing most of the time anyway, however, if you have the patience to look for tells, by all means knock yourself out.

I'd start with Caro's Book of Tells. As far as always paying attention to your own actions....yes...don't get caught up in missing reads on players with shabby hands. A good tip...after you make a fold, concentrate on how the other players are playing...that way you can give full attention to reading these opponents.

Start with Caro's book....study it and look for the tells he describes...as you become more experienced...you will be able to spot other mannerisms and tells that will help your game. Good Luck.

[Glenn]

Tells exist and could provide some profit. They are much more important in no-limit than in limit. In limit it is much more important to act correctly than to pick up tells. You can usually figure out if you are ahead/behind/have outs, the trick is how to draw cheaply, value bet, fold when you don't have odds to call, etc... You will lose much more money by not having these things down than you will gain by picking up tells.

[HDPM]

True, but occasionally a tell can really add to your profit. But a lot of times its obvious. The last time I played we had a 3-way 15-30 pot. The player with the best hand gave a tell that he hated the river card. (It put a 4-straight on the board) The first player who was the weakest player in the game bet out. The tell of the third player let me call and pick off the worst player's bluff, because I knew the 3d player would not overcall. The player w/ the tell showed when he dumped the winner, so he was really mad to see my hand. This was rare and an obvious tell, but it allowed me to win an entire pot I wouldn't have won otherwise. That represents a bunch of hours of grinding.

Hey,
I am fairly new to this game myself. But I thought I would just make a point about an experience I had while playing. I wont go into details. But a player showed a very obvious tell (shaking hands) this indicates a strong hand, or so I have heard. Sure enough, this player showed down a full house at the end (he had flopped it). BUT (here is the point), the player got beaten by a bigger full house. This is because the board had become extremely dangerous (there were 2 pairs on board as I recall), and the player with the shakey hands was unable to re-evaluate the value of his hand at each stage of the game and he was unable to properly evaluate what others players might have.
Anyway, the point is, if you are playing at low limit and pick up on a tell you may read into it incorrectly, the player may only have the second best hand, but because they THINK it is such a good hand they may display some tells. So they may merely be shaking because it is a good hand, but not the best (like the full house example). So what good is a tell such as shakey hands if the player exhibits it for any hand which they think is really great but not necessarily the nuts? Further, what happens if you fold the winner(lets say kings full) because you saw your opponent shaking and you figured him for quads when he actually had something like (10s full)?
This is just one example, and I am not advanced enough to answer your question, I can only give this example as a warning. I hope it can help you in some way.
Good luck,
Ben

[Dynasty]

Tells will provide some additional profit. However, you should first focus on learning to play good strategic poker. After you've "mastered" that, you'll best be able to use any tells you spot.

[ChipWrecked]

Also check out Caro's streaming video tutorials over at his University if you haven't yet. Isn't his book now titled 'The Body Language of Poker' or some such?

In low-limit with no expert players at the table you will note that everyone stares at the cards being turned by the dealer to see if they were what they needed. If you can learn to speed-look at the reactions (a bit like speed-reading a book) you'll usually see who the flop interested. A very common tell is for a player to instinctively quickly glance down at their chips right after seeing a turn card they liked. It means they are unconsciously checking to see that their chips are within quick handling reach because they know they will be betting in that round at some point.

So there is no need to stare at the cards being turned by the dealer as they will still be there unchanged in a couple of seconds from now. I like to sit in a seat where all the players are within quick view from my position. Of course I try to be subtle about watching for tells, or I wear sunglasses so they don't know where I am looking.

[zuluking]

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