Eating Tells

[RockSteady]

I'm a relative beginner at poker and a newbie at B&M.

Yesterday, a LAG commented after quads beat a boat that he knew the winner had a big hand because he stopped eating.

I almost choked on my club sandwich.

Also, a loose player tightened up while eating. He hardly played a hand and when he did, it was a premium hand. After he finished eating, he seemed even looser than before the meal.

Are there any specific things to watch for and capitalize on?

[4_2_it]

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Yesterday, a LAG commented after quads beat a boat that he knew the winner had a big hand because he stopped eating.


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I wouldn't get hung up on eating tells. Maybe the guy was already full, maybe he had gas, maybe he can't feed his face and look at this cards at the same time. None of those tell you diddly about his hand strength.

Now, if he happens to vomit all over the table, you should fold, move to another table immediately and not order what he did from the snack bar.

[Ghazban]

Generally, if somebody is eating and they stop to play a hand, its a good hand. Nobody thinks "hey I'll make a move with garbage here" when its just as easy to fold the hand and get back to the food. Similarly, if somebody is racking up and about to leave but they look at their hand and decide to stay and play it, its almost always a good hand. Why stick around to play one more hand if its mediocre? As with all tells, none of these are 100% accurate.

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Generally, if somebody is eating and they stop to play a hand, its a good hand. Nobody thinks "hey I'll make a move with garbage here" when its just as easy to fold the hand and get back to the food. Similarly, if somebody is racking up and about to leave but they look at their hand and decide to stay and play it, its almost always a good hand. Why stick around to play one more hand if its mediocre? As with all tells, none of these are 100% accurate.

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I agree with this analysis and to it I would add that when a player has just won a big pot and stops stacking his chips to play the next hand it's usually pretty good as well. These tells are very accurate at the lower limits, I find, where people aren't even aware that you're watching them but don't rely on it too much at higher limits where the players know that these tells are classics and may therefor use them to fool you.

In the book *Poker Nation* the author relates an account of a big laydown based on this very thing.

See my related post --> Eating player = Easy bluff victim?

[RiverTheNuts]

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