Basically, here’s a list of hands that a person might slow-play:

• They’ve flopped their set.
• They’ve nailed their flush.
• They’ve nailed their straight.
• They’ve flopped two pair.
• They’ve booked up.

When slow playing, you must note what is actually on the board! I’ve seen far too many players bust their hand by slow playing their set, or their two pair, when there’s a flush draw on the board. Observe. Check to see if there are hands that have a reasonable chance of beating you:

• Is there a flush draw out there?
• A straight draw?
• If you’ve flopped a flush holding two low cards, you’ve got to keep in mind that other people are still drawing to a higher flush.

You must not overvalue your hand; it’s great you’ve flopped your set with your pocket pair, but you cannot slow play it if there’s a potential flush out there. It’s just not safe betting. You’re letting people draw cheaply – is your hand strong enough?

A great time to slow-play:

• You’ve flopped the nuts (or a very strong hand.. i.e. 7d, 7s or Kd, Kh)
• There are minimal draws on the board. (3d, 7h, Ks)
• The pot is small.
• You want your opponents to catch up a bit. You’re so far ahead that it is very unlikely they will catch up completely.

Hopefully another player at Full Tilt Poker has caught a pair of kings and will call you down, but you want to check this one out and let others improve their hands so that they bet and they think they’re ahead.

A bad time to slow-play:

• You’ve flopped your set. (Hole cards: 2s, 2d)
• The flop holds 2 suited cards, and they’re also connected. (7d, 8d, 2h)
• The pot is large, and there are still 4 other players in it.

What will happen in the latter example is that people have great odds to call with their drawing hands, so you must be careful even when betting aggressively. Just don’t slow play!

Muppet Rule #1: Don’t overvalue your hand!

An unconscious poker tell is a tell that a player will expose when they think you’re not looking… they won’t even know they’re doing it.

Impatience

Tapping the poker table

There are two people left in a pot, yourself and Player X. You’re first to act, you check and then Player X bets. He then starts tapping the table. Most players confuse this poker tell if they notice it: they think, he’s being impatient because he’s bluffing and just wants to claim this pot. Wrong. He doesn’t even notice that he’s tapping the table, and, in fact, he’s got a very strong hand. In these instances, even with a strong hand, you should only call. (Or fold)

Shuffling hole cards

If you notice this after a player has bet, it’s essentially the exact same poker tell as above. Pass, or only call – don’t raise.

Guarding hole cards.

A lot of players do this. I did it myself before becoming aware that this actually gave away information. Take a look around the table on www.PokerStars.com at various stages of hands to see who exhibits this tell – you’ll probably spot it on 50% of all poker players. It’s apparently an intrinsic part of human nature to cover or ‘protect’ things that are of value to us… including cards.

Covering of mouth.

This is more commonly seen in amateur players. As a ploy to hide their face, they’ll raise their hand to their mouth – subconsciously believing that this will aid in them pulling off their bluff. If you see a player do this, don’t hesitate to call with bottom or a medium pair. Be careful when utilizing this tell; a lot of players may naturally raise their hands to their mouth regularly & obviously they’re not going to be bluffing each time they do this. Take note of which players do this frequently, as this tell cannot be applied to them.

Quiet = Bluff.

A player’s usually talking, laughing and just being generally obnoxious… Now, they’re actively betting into a poker pot and have suddenly fallen silent. What does this usually tell you? Well, the player’s trying not to instigate a call by angering anybody else. Basically, they’re limiting their moves and avoiding drawing attention to themselves while bluffing. A good way to help recognize this tell FullTilt.com is by asking the player a simple question. Even just “how was Melbourne’s football game on the weekend, hey?” – if the person would usually flow with an answer, and suddenly fumbles for words and can’t find a sentence to put together, they’re probably bluffing.

Talkative = Strong.

On the other hand, a poker player who casually talks about anything that interests them during a poker hand is probably not bluffing. To the contrary, it is more than likely that they’ll have a strong hand.

As a general rule for recognizing bluffs, you’ll need to analyze what sort of person the poker player is. When a player suddenly acts somewhat out of character, it’s highly likely that they’re bluffing or are weak. Remember that these tells aren’t gospel and will vary from player to player, and they’ll also be a lot more subtle with some players.

Chip Stacking

Neat, tidy chip-stack

These players are generally tight players. (Refer to my beginner’s guide to poker strategy for elaboration) They’re at FullTiltPoker to gamble, but not to lose their money. A player like this will usually fold if the odds are against them. This tell tells us two things:

1. We should scarcely enter a pot against this player with a mediocre or marginal poker hand.
2. This one is more important to us. A lot of players will actually stack their winnings separately for them to keep track of. Why does this help us? Well, when betting, we can bet more than this persons winnings and – given their nature – they’ll probably fold unless they’ve got a rock-solid hand. (Something you should probably deduce before trying to bet them out!)

Messy, scattered chip-stack.

This lets us know that the player is loose. They’re at FullTiltPoker.com to gamble, ready to splash some chips around and you can use this to your advantage. If a player is really this uncaring (sometimes you’ll find players in between) and their stack is all over the place, they’re literally a calling station. Just watch out for suckouts!

I just won a big pot.

I couldn’t really think of a fitting heading for this one… But anyway, this refers to when players have just won a big pot and still haven’t had time to stack their poker chips yet. More often than not, they’ll see their hole cards before stacking them and then splash some chips into the pot with a marginal hand – something you should be wary of. More so than that, if a player starts betting into a pot after they’ve just won one, then you should also know that in most cases they’re not bluffing. To the contrary, they’ll probably have quick a solid hand.

The same principles can apply in poker. I’ve seen far too many player fall in love with their hole cards, then be completely oblivious to what their opponents could be holding. Metaphorically speaking, this is the same as being oblivious to a partner that could be cheating on you.

You just don’t do it.

Recently, I was playing poker at Full Tilt Poker against an opponent who did exactly the thing that I am trying to warn you against. Now this opponent was no amateur, they were quite an experienced poker player and perhaps shouldn’t have made the mistake that they did, but this just goes to show that anyone can fall in love with their cards.

This opponent was lucky enough to be dealt what we all hope for: Aces in the hole. He was on big blind, and when most players limped in, he raised. I was on the button with 10 jack of hearts, called his raise, as did one other player before me. Up until this point, my opponent has played his hand flawlessly, he raised to narrow the field of players that could beat him as well as stopping players with weaker cards seeing the flop cheaply.

So now there are three players in the pot and we see the flop, eight of clubs, nine of hearts and ace of hearts. BANG just like seeing the woman of his dreams my opponent was in love, he had flopped his set of aces. But – as you can see – I had flopped a flush draw and also an open ended strait draw.

Straight away, he bet into the pot and the other player folded. With so many outs, it made the odds a no-brainer to call. The turn was a lousy 3 of spades, no help to me. Not to worry though, as I still had 15 outs left in the deck. Immediately he bet again, not enough to make the odds too long for me to call though, it seems as though he was trying to keep me in the pot to extract as much money from me as possible. I call, and on the river falls the five of hearts.

Completely oblivious to the third heart that had just fallen, he bet into me with no fear and I immediately raised him to not give him anytime to think. Without too much thought process, he pushes all in. I call, knowing I have him dominated. With much authority and pride, he shows me his pretty set of aces. I calmly show him my flush and the look on his face – I will never forget, it was as if he had just caught his partner in the act of cheating. He got up from his seat and walked off without saying a word.

In hindsight, he will know he made a mistake, but in the heat of the moment and the love for the “monster” he had just been dealt, his eyes were wide shut and didn’t even consider what I could be holding. He isn’t the first player to make this mistake on Full Tilt, and certainly won’t be the last. We have all made this mistake and when we look back on it we say “DAMN, how did I not know that he had made a straight”. A quick re-assessment of our hand and what our opponents could be calling with can save you a lot of money in the long run.

Just like a relationship that’s gone sour, its best to release your hand when its obvious that you have been outrun, no matter how much love you had for the cards when they were first dealt!

*Loose Aggressive
*Loose Passive/Non-Aggressive
*Tight Aggressive
*Tight Passive/Non-Aggressive

I’ll elaborate:

Loose Aggressive

Bullies. Poker Bullies. These players are unpredictable, erratic, and probably your worst nightmare when you’re playing poker based solely on odds. These poker players will raise ridiculously, over-bet and bluff way too often. They ride their luck; when that runs out, so does their chip-stack.
You’re free to call these players with more marginal drawing hands.

Loose Passive

Too much money, not enough brains. They’re your free bank roll, or your massive suck-out for the night. Most of the time, these players aren’t too much of a hassle – just don’t get too antsy when they bad-beat you a few times.
Make the most of your moderate to solid poker hands to take them out.

Tight Aggressive

Most seasoned players would probably fall somewhere between this category and the loose aggressive category. Now, there’s no way to always win money when playing poker, but being tight aggressive would have to be the most logical. These players’ decisions are not based on a ‘gut-feeling’ but rather odds; if the odds aren’t favoring them, they’ll fold.
Enter a pot with such a poker player cautiously. You will, more than likely, need more than just a marginal hand.

Tight Passive

Tight asses. Yes, that is exactly what a tight passive poker player is. They gamble, yet cling to every penny like it’s their last. They’ll typically under-bet or possibly not even bet at all – instead they’ll just call.
A player like this rarely bluffs. If they’re calling you (or worse, raising you), call with nothing shy of a winning hand.

It is important for poker players on any site, including BodogLife.com to realize that they shouldn’t try to just ‘fit’ one of these types. Mixing up your game is an important part of poker strategy. Just don’t over-do it.