People sometimes ask me what I think about real-life (i.e., non-game and non-poker) behavior. Generally, I don't weigh in on such things, because most real-world behavior has a lot of ambiguity due to there being so many unknown factors. (For example, is someone nervous because they're deceiving? Or nervous because they're on the spot? Did someone mis-speak because of some sort of subconscious ...
“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 ...
Jamie Gold, lies, and ambiguous statements
Some people think that all poker players are liars. All poker players sometimes lie; that’s definitely true. But in my experience most players don’t often lie during a hand. They may misrepresent their hands, or mislead you, especially after the hand is over, but seldom will they tell an outright lie while a hand is going on. ...
Staying friendly with someone you’re bluffing
I usually try to act friendly/devil-may-care when playing poker. Most of the time I'm just acting that way to give the impression I don't care about the money and I'm there to have a good time. Also, it is often to my benefit to get friendly with people, since they're more likely to give you credit for a hand when you bet against them - "He wouldn't bluff me, we're friends" kind of thoughts ...