By Daniel Negreanu.
There’s a common misconception about how, and more importantly, when to read other players’ tells.

I get a kick out of the whole stare down thing after an opponent makes a bet on the river. Even though the bettor never flinches, the staring continues because one player (mistakenly) hopes that if he stares long enough, he’ll somehow figure out if the other player is bluffing or not.

That’s just not how you read people, and that’s not the right time to start searching for tells.

The subtle tells you pick up at the poker table will often occur well before you’re faced with your big decision. Why? Because tells happen early. To make a good read, you must pay attention to the action at the beginning of the hand, even though the table action doesn’t yet seem exciting.

It’s just very unlikely that you’ll discover a physical tell on the river that will miraculously sway your decision. It’s much more effective to look for revealing tells pre-flop, post-flop, or possibly as late as the turn card.

Here are a few pointers to help you know what to look for before the flop.

Let’s say you observe an opponent gobbling down a messy meal while seated at the table. Well, here’s a rule of thumb: Players generally get a bit more conservative when they’re…. continue reading at Falls Church News-Press

By Todd Brunson, Cardplayer.com
As I mentioned in my last column, I placed 15th in the Doyle Brunson Classic, a WPT event held at Bellagio. Not only would it have been great to win my father’s tournament, but the first prize was $2.5 million! This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world outside the World Series of Poker. I had to settle for a little less than $100,000 as a consolation prize, unfortunately.

This was a great tourney. Jack McClelland started us with 30,000 in chips without starting the limits at 1,000-2,000 right off the bat. We also had 90-minute levels, so there was a lot of play. This was no all-in donkeyfest, which many formerly great events have become.

While I usually advocate an aggressive gambling style in tournaments, this type of tournament requires a more laid-back, selective style. Now, I’m not saying that you should play passively; I’m just saying that you have more time to pick your spots, so you should take it. I laid down more hands in this tournament than I have in the past year, literally.

That’s what this column is about, laying down big hands. It’s tough to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, especially in a slow-paced tourney like this one.

I usually believe that when faced with a decision in a tournament, you’re always better off erring on the play side (calling or raising) as opposed to the laydown side. You normally don’t have much time, and may never see another big hand again before the antes eat you up.

This is what I hate about contemporary tournament poker. Any idiot who is aggressive enough can win a tournament with minimal poker-playing skill. Ever notice that many of these tournament champs get… continue reading at SwissPoker.ch

by Paul Wasicka
One of the most critical aspects to surviving – and thriving – in deep stack tournaments is learning how to control the size of the pots you play. In short, your goal should be to play big pots when you have big hands and small pots when you don’t. When you and your opponents are deep stacked in a tournament, there are two vital elements to pay attention to when you enter a pot – your opponents’ playing style and the texture of the flop.

Before you commit any chips to the pot, you want to identify the types of players who are likely to be in the hand with you. If you’re at a loose table where your opponents are playing a wide range of hands, you’re going to want to play smaller pots unless you’re sure that you’re way ahead or, preferably, holding the nuts.

Say you’re in a hand with something big like pocket Queens and a player who’s been involved in a lot of pots calls your pre-flop raise. The flop comes J-9-7, and you’re out of position. You need to be very careful about betting here because a loose-aggressive player is going to put you to the test. I’d recommend check-calling or check-raising rather than putting out a continuation bet and giving your opponent a chance to re-raise you or, possibly, flat call with the intention of pushing you off the hand on a later street by making a large bet you can’t call if a scare card falls on the turn or river.

Having position against these types of players makes it much easier for you to control the pot, as you’ll be able to turn the table on them and call or re-raise their initial bets. If they come back over the top, you can…. continue reading at FullTilt

by Allen Cunningham

In poker, image matters.

Throughout a tournament, your table image will help determine how much action you’ll get and, ultimately, how you can manipulate your opponents into making big calls or big laydowns at the wrong times.

While establishing a loose, aggressive image early on can help build your initial chip stack, I believe it’s important to develop a tight table image in the later stages of a tournament because it gives you the ability to maneuver at the times when the chips matter most.

When the action is folded around, some players will always raise from the cutoff and the button. The problem with this play is that’s its predictable and can be easily exploited. If you always raise from the button, the players in the blinds catch on sooner or later and will put in a big re-raise with any two cards. You will also find players just calling you with a much wider range of hands from the blinds before putting in a big check-raise on the flop.

Why do they do this? Because you have been presenting a loose table image by raising any time the action is passed to you. During late-stage play, this image … continue reading at Full Tilt Poker

By Joe Navarro with Marvin Karlins
…..Pacifying Behaviors Involving the Neck: Neck touching and/or stroking is one of the most significant and frequent pacifying behaviors we use in responding to stress. I have observed over the decades that there are gender differences in the way men and women use the neck to pacify themselves. Men usually are more robust in their movements, grasping or cupping the front of their neck (under the chin) with their hand or stroking the sides or the back of the neck with their fingers. Sometimes they will adjust their necktie knot or shirt collar. Women do things differently. When they pacify using the neck, they will sometimes touch, twist, or otherwise manipulate necklaces they are wearing. The other major way women neck-pacify is by covering their suprasternal notch with their hand. The suprasternal (which comes from terms meaning “above” and “breastbone”) notch is the hollow area right below the Adam’s apple that is sometimes referred to as the neck dimple. Women touch this part of their neck and/or cover it when they feel stressed; for example, when they feel threatened, uncomfortable, or anxious at the poker table.

This covering of the suprasternal notch is a relatively significant tell. It can be used to detect when a person is bluffing, both in life and in poker. I remember one FBI investigation in which we thought an armed and dangerous fugitive might be hiding out at his mother’s home. Another agent and I went to the woman’s house, and when we knocked at the door, she came outside to meet us. We showed our identification and began asking her a series of questions. When I inquired, “Is your son in the house?” she put her hand to her suprasternal notch and said, “No, he’s not.” I noted her behavior, and we continued with our questioning. After a few minutes I asked, “Is it possible that while you were at work, your son could have sneaked into the house?” Once again, she put her hand up to her neck dimple and replied, “No, I’d know that.” I was now confident that her son was in the house, because the only time she moved her hand to her neck was when I suggested that possibility. To make absolutely sure my assumption was correct, we continued to speak with the woman until, as we prepared to leave, I made one last inquiry: “Just so I can finalize my records, you’re positive he’s not in the house, right?” For a third time, her hand went to her neck as she affirmed her earlier answer. I was now certain the woman was lying. A search of the house turned up her missing son hiding in a bedroom closet.

There’s an interesting footnote to this neck tell. When I was shooting a television special with Annie Duke, I noticed that when something disturbed her, she pacified by covering her suprasternal notch. I said to her, “You really need to watch that neck-touching response, because if I can see it, so can your opponents at the poker table. I suspect you might display that behavior when you’re bluffing, and other players might decipher it and realize you have a weak hand.” After I identified the behavior, she actually recognized she had been touching her neck in such a manner and said she would make an effort to stop. To her credit – she is an incredible person and poker player – I haven’t seen her doing it at the tables since our discussion.

Tells of the Feet: As I emphasize in our book Read ’em and Reap, the feet are the most honest part of our body; thus foot nonverbals normally provide very reliable information. Women don’t…. read rest of article at Bluff Magazine