False tells?

[Oblivious]

Most of these "false tells" arent false tells at all... theyre just tells indicating the true strength of your hand.

[chesspain]

[ QUOTE ]
Reverse tells and false reverse tells are vital to most mid-stakes games I've sat in...

[/ QUOTE ]

I occassionaly carpool to Foxwoods with another 2+2er who claims to be a successful (i.e. self-supporting) 20-40 player. He plays HE or Stud, and travels to Foxwoods because he claims he can't find a good enough choice of juicy 20-40 stud games online.

When I listen to him talk about hands, he sounds like an extremely skilled, mathematically based (i.e. Baysien?) player. Yet, after hearing him discuss the play of some live 20-40 hands, I mentioned "You know, in all of the decision-making choices you had in those hands, I never heard you mention whether you picked up on tells, or even how the other players seemed to you when it was their turn to act."

I was a little surprised when he responded that whereas he believes himself to be a very good to expert hand reader, he rarely if ever makes a difficult decision based on a live tell, preferring to make his decision based on mathematics and his knowledge of his opponents' play. In fact, he added that he feels at a disadvatange playing live, since he finds the database of his Pokertracker-like software to be much more helpful to him than what he believes is only his mediocre ability to decipher live tells.

Although this is the story of only one man, it seems to jibe with Mason's claim that the utility of perceiving and profitting from live tells, even at mid-limit games, is grossly overrated...

[chief444]

I find that if you play in a regular game this is rather pointless because observant opponents pick up on false tells quickly just as they would pick up on other tells. So I just focus on being consistent in my actions at the regular games I play in. But I've also found that this works well at some mid limit games in Vegas (or I'm sure anywhere new) against some regulars when you are the new face. It usually only works once or twice but is good for a couple of extra bets or better early. Usually just any small gesture to act strong when you are strong or vice-versa gives an observant opponent the wrong impression. I also find this works better against good but not very good opponents.

[ncskiier]

I know that guy... He sucks.

[TiK]

You have to watch out with that staredown thing though, there're a few people I know who do that, and when called have had monsters.

A couple of weeks ago, final table in a tournament, I'm under the gun with KK. I'm shortstacked so I push all in. Chipleader, sitting immediately to my left calls me and another guy sitting 1 off the cuttoff (3rd or 4th in chips) moves all in over the top, and then proceeds to stare down/glare at the chipleader...at which point, the chipleader says something along the lines of "You know, Mike Caro says that when you glare at me like that, you probably have a weak hand." The glarer replies "Who the hell is Mike Caro?" and continues to glare. Chipleaders thinks for a while and mucks his pocket 3s, it's heads up me and the glarer and the glarer flips over pocket Aces...I find a good number of people who do the same glaring thing, regardless of whether they're bluffing or not...

[Loci]

In college I taught some buddy's how to play micro limit poker, and they thought they were all Johnny Chan because I would give them a warning with my loose change bets when I had the nuts. "Get outta my game." It took them months to realize I was giving them a present by it. When some of them started getting a little better and too big for their britches, holding real cash instead of loose change, I made a point to say it and push all in on them when I bluffed. One kid so ademantly believed I was incapable of saying that and bluffing he layed down the second nut full house. Silly kids.
ez-out

[Dominic]

well it's never %100...and you do have to watch for reverse tells from knowledgable pros...but I can usually figure out which way the staredown is going...and it usually means "weak."