[pritz]

Back a few weeks I was really excited when I discovered tells in my home poker game opponents.

But now I realize THEY have discovered my tells. I know it for sure. Now how do I know what tells I'm giving away? Are there any techniques? It's gotta be something totally different than what I'm thinking of...

[lork]

Players that are hard for me to read are robotic. They never move right after a card hits the board. They always wait the same amount of time before betting, checking, raising, or even folding.

All their motions are the same calculated, slow as molasses pace. If they are talkers, they are talking all the time. Others do not talk at all during a hand. A talker who shuts up on the flop has a BIG tell.

Keep it smooth and do it the same way every time.

[pritz]

Well, we all talk all the time in our home poker game. I believe the tells are more subtle, like some lips movement, or eye. Probably something to do with the face.. .it's just hard to isolate when I don't have a videotape.

I know when looking for tells I always look at the faces: mouth, lips, eyes .... I just wish I could look at mine!

[chris]

The most obvious tell I have picked up on many times is when someone looks at their hand then immediately at their stack. I KNOW they have a hand when the do that. They usually come out raising when I pick this up.

I'm not sure about my own tells either. After a tourny last week I started to think about what movements I was making. I (think) that whenever I hit a flop or have a hand, I will bet RIGHT AWAY but when I'm not too sure, I'll wait about 5/10 seconds then bet/raise. If someone were to pick up on this, they would know that I don't hold the nuts when I bet if it's a slow one.

Anyway, I'm not sure about this. I can't wait to try to improve on it anyway during my next game.

[pritz]

HAAAA! We should all meet for a week of poker and at the end of it we all talk about the various tell we picked up on each other. Then we go back to our hometowns and we're the kings!

[BigAl]

Not necessarily, some tells you just can't hide. Sweating at the palms or forehead can mean stress or nervousness - if you can learn the difference, you know when a guys bluffing and when a guys eyes have lit up at the flop.

There are all sorts, shuffling, taking a sip of a drink, playing with cards, chips, rubbing hands over the table, all sorts. It's really difficult to read people with any conviction - you will have a gut instinct, but people do a lot of things subconsciously, and not always because of the cards they have got.

Look at movements, look when they bet and try to match their big hands with any particular movements or fidgets and you'll soon get an idea of when to get out of a hand.