“Disclaimers”: a category for some common verbal statements in poker

There is a class of verbal statements you hear a lot in poker that I call disclaimers. These are statements that attempt to explain away, or “disclaim”, the real meaning behind an action. A basic example of this would be when a no-limit tournament player goes all in while announcing something like, “I’ve only got a few chips left. I guess I’ve got to go all-in.” He is implying that him not having many chips left is a primary reason for going all in. More often than not, that player will be strong, and the “disclaimer” will be pointing you in the wrong direction.

Another example would be when two players are heads-up on the flop and the player first to act, as if just noticing that it’s only the two of them, says in a friendly manner, “Just us? I’ll check.” (This is much more common in limit than in no-limit.) This player is implying that he’s checking because there are only two people playing, so he’s probably actually checking because he has a weak hand.

That’s pretty simple stuff. But sometimes disclaimers can be more subtle and can require more in-depth interpretation.

An example of a disclaimer: in a multi-way pot, the player last to act looks momentarily confused. “Everybody checked? I’ll bet.” He’s implying that the main reason for his bet is that everyone has shown weakness. It’s probably untrue and he’s most likely strong.

Another example: It’s a loose game, where there has been a lot of recent raising. A late-position player suddenly becomes belligerent when someone raises in front of him. “Raise! Raise! Raise! Everybody wants to raise!” he mock-yells, as if disgusted with how much everyone has been raising, and he throws in a second raise. He’s implying that he is only raising because he is irritated with the recent raising, so it’s likely he’s raising because he has a strong hand.

Thought I’d add an addendum on here; one I should probably put in the book, too. It’s pretty much only the weakest players you’ll hear making statements like this where they’ll be meaningful and obvious in this way. It’s a fairly obvious tell. For this reason, more experienced players will be more likely to say stuff like this and have it be a false tell. I’ll use these kinds of things occasionally when playing with strangers (the only time I use any false tells is against competent strangers) who I think perceive me as a fish, so would be likely to perceive my words in the way I want them to be perceived. For example, I’ll occasionally (rarely) do something like saying, “Oh, everyone checked? I guess I’ll bet” when I’m bluffing, but only when I think the players are capable of enough to interpret this statement as a typical tell from a recreational player.