Tag Archives: bluffing

Guy Laliberte’s poker tells, Part 3: bet timing and leaning back in the chair

Examining Guy Laliberte’s poker tells, this post looks at a bet-timing imbalance and a tendency Guy seems to have of leaning back in his chair following a bluff.

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A tricky player with a rather unique betting motion tell

A crazy, weird limit player and a tell I noticed he had. On the river, he’d make slower, more roundabout bets when he was weak, because he was trying to get a sense if his opponent was calling or not so he could potentially abandon his bet if he saw they were calling. If he had a strong hand, he’d just push the bet in more straightforwardly and quickly.

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Threatening-to-turn-cards-over tell

Thoughts on the threatening-to-turn-your-hand-over tell, where a player who is bluffing, when facing a potential call, acts like he’s ready to turn his cards over to show a winner. While this tell can sometimes be very obvious, it can also show up in very subtle ways.

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Movement and stillness when bluffing

Thoughts on a weird player who behaved the opposite of most people; this player got all antsy and moved around a lot when he was bluffing. Whereas when he had a real hand, he would be more still. This is the opposite of most people, so it got me thinking that maybe there’s certain people who do this…

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Bet timing tells. Strategic use of calling the clock.

This is about a guy I’ve played with a few times who regularly takes a super-long time to act, and about how I deal with that by calling the clock on him. It’s also about a strategic use of calling the clock, based on how I think this player perceived my use of calling the clock on him. Also some talk about bet-timing, and how players who take a long time to act when they’re strong will tend to act fairly quickly when bluffing.

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Three major misconceptions about poker tells

I discuss some of the common misconceptions about poker tells, including:

1) People think that bluffers are usually going to stare them down, but this isn’t usually the case; bluffers will usually tend to avoid eye contact.

2) Related to #1, people tend to think that when they seek players acting in exaggeratedly strong ways (splashing chips, staring, talking shit, acting cocky) that this means weakness. But actually, many people with strong hands get more relaxed, which leads to them acting in these strong ways. So actually, for many people, strong actually means strong.

3) Everyone seems to think trembling hands is a very important tell, but it’s not unless you’re playing with extreme beginners. Most even somewhat experienced players don’t get so excited to see a strong hand that their hands shake. Plus there are many reasons a person’s hands can shake.

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Staying friendly with someone you’re bluffing

When someone asks you “What’d you have last hand?” or stuff like that, I realized it’s a good strategy to say something like, “I don’t mind telling you, but I don’t want to tell everyone else. I’ll tell you later.” Later, of course, you can tell them whatever you want.

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