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Anger or irritation from a bettor usually points toward strength and relaxation. Some reasons and factors:
- Bluffers tend to avoid behavior that could make an opponent suspicious, angry, or more likely to call.
- Strong-hand bettors can afford to show emotion: They’re often more relaxed about how they’re perceived and may even use frustration or displeasure to look weak and induce a call.
- Unprompted irritation is more meaningful than prompted irritation: Genuine needling or provocation can make even a bluffer react, and the pattern is less reliable among players who know each other well.
To explain the reasons behind this pattern, I’ll include a couple excerpts from my book Verbal Poker Tells. Note that these excerpts focus on verbal behavior, but the same logic applies to nonverbal expressions of anger and irritation (for example, agitated facial expressions, aggressive staring, huffing in an irritated way, and so on).
Irritation with an opponent
Players who allow themselves to show anger or irritation with an opponent when making a significant bet will generally have strong hands.
Bluffers tend to avoid behavior or statements that will make an opponent suspicious, because a suspicious opponent may call. A subset of this idea is that bluffers will tend to avoid doing or saying anything that might anger or upset an opponent. An opponent who is made upset or angry might decide to call out of frustration (the so-called “spite call”). For this reason, most bluffers avoid expressing visible or audible irritation with an opponent. If a player has made a significant bet and he talks in an angry or frustrated way to an opponent, he probably has a strong hand.
Another reason for this pattern is that players betting strong hands may act angry with an opponent or a situation in order to try to arouse suspicion or curiosity and get a call.
The main exception to this pattern: in games amongst regulars who know each other well, this pattern isn’t as reliable. Players may know each other well and regularly needle each other in a lot of different situations.
Genuine anger
If someone does express genuine irritation with an opponent when holding a weak hand, it’s much more likely to be shown when the angry person is the non-aggressor in the hand, or when bets are small. Genuine irritation will also be more likely to be shown in multi-way pots, because many people “lower their guards” in those situations. In these less-significant situations, people are capable of exhibiting a wider range of behavior. See the chapter Genuine Irritation for more information.
Calling the clock
When a player has made a bet and then calls the clock on an opponent, this is often interpreted as a hostile action (even if it’s not intended as one). Because most players are aware of how calling the clock is likely to be interpreted, a player who has bet and who calls the clock on an opponent is likely to hold a strong hand.
Elicited irritation
A bluffer, if aggravated enough by an opponent, will eventually respond with his own irritation, no matter how much he usually adheres to not showing irritation when bluffing. For this reason, prompted irritation isn’t as meaningful as unprompted irritation. Prompted irritation can still be meaningful, though; it’s just less meaningful than when unprompted.
When good players use probes to try to determine an opponent’s strength, one of the things they look for is irritation. For example, a good player might ask, “Will you show if I fold?” and an opponent might get visibly irritated and say, “Hell no!” This player’s willingness to show irritation shows that he’s likely relaxed with the situation.
Some players might even purposefully aggravate and “needle” a bettor in an attempt to get information. A player may have a pattern of responding to abuse by expressing irritation when he has bet a strong hand, but when bluffing he’ll stay calm and conciliatory.
Irritation with a hand or situation
When a player expresses displeasure with his hand or with the situation in general, and this statement is associated with a significant bet or raise, he’ll usually have a strong hand. Even experienced players are prone to this kind of pattern; the difference will be that experienced players will be more subtle when expressing their irritation.
As noted, players who are betting with weak hands or bluffing tend to not want to draw attention to themselves. They don’t want to express displeasure, because they’re uncertain how such a display will be interpreted. Being able to freely express displeasure is a sign of relaxation.
Another reason for this pattern is that expressing displeasure with a hand or situation is often first-level, weak-means-strong deception from a player holding a strong hand. For example, an amateur player sees the river card, shakes his head, sighs loudly, and then makes a big bet; he’s trying to communicate weakness. The more inexperienced the player is, the more obvious these kinds of tells (both nonverbal and verbal) will generally be.
In a more subtle form of this pattern, a player who’s made a big bet may not express displeasure with his hand but may instead express displeasure with a situation outside of the hand itself, like a dealer’s mistake or the behavior of a player who’s not in the hand. In such situations, if the player were bluffing he would still want to appear confident, so showing these other forms of displeasure also makes it likely he’s relaxed.
Distinguishing from genuine irritation
As with genuine irritation directed at an opponent, genuine irritation with a situation will usually be exhibited by a non-aggressor in a hand who has given up on winning the pot. See the chapter Genuine Irritation for more information.
Examples
2005 WSOP NLHE Main Event tournament, E8 of 12, ~22:00
Shawn Sheikhan raises pre-flop to 100,000. Tiffany Williamson raises to 250,000 with K♥ J♥. Sheikhan goes all-in.
Williamson: “How much?”
Sheikhan: “I got over two million.”
Williamson thinks for a while. She stands up, seeming frustrated.
Williamson: “I did this two days ago. With this hand. I doubled up… Unless you got aces. Which I don’t think you have. I don’t think you have aces.”
Sheikhan is silent. At one point, he sighs, seeming impatient. Williamson talks some more and takes a long time. Then Williamson stands up and walks over to the rail.
Sheikhan (emphatically): “Yo, yo! I object to that. Hold on. Hold on. I object. Yo yo, you can’t do that, lady.”
Williamson eventually folds. Sheikhan had A♥ A♠. If he were weak or bluffing here, he’d be unlikely to voice his frustration with her. If he had a weak hand and wanted to object to her leaving the table, he would likely be more polite.
$2-5 NLHE cash game, witnessed by author
The river board is 9♠ 8♥ 4♠ A♥ T♠ in a heads-up pot. But the dealer has made a mistake and the river has to be redealt. The new river board is 9♠ 8♥ 4♠ A♥ 5♦.
When the new river comes out, the aggressor in the hand shakes his head, looking at the dealer in an angry way, and says, “Unreal. If I lose this…” He finally goes all-in for $325 into a pot of $370.
His opponent folds and the player shows A♠ 8♠, for two pair. Interestingly, the player would have had the flush on the original river card, so he was perhaps showing some genuine frustration. But he still knew he was likely ahead with his two pair. The point is that he would’ve been unlikely to show such irritation with the dealer or the situation if he were preparing to make a big bluff.
Zachary Elwood is the author of the Reading Poker Tells trilogy of books, which has been translated into eight languages and sold more than 48,000 copies. See more frequently asked poker tells questions.