Quote:
Originally Posted by apokerplayer
Hey Hello,
You'd think people betting strong hands would be unlikely to make "strong-hand statements", but in actuality strong-hand statements from bettors are pretty hard to interpret. For two reasons:
• Players with strong hands are sometimes so relaxed (especially if they are already assured of a big pot) that they'll say all sorts of weird things, including making both weak-hand statements and strong-hand statements.
•*Sometimes players betting strong hands may be attempting to trick you into calling because they think a lot of people have the 'weak-means-strong' and 'strong-means-weak' belief. (And you can see how this isn't that bad an attempt, at least for some players, from this post.)
The whole "weak-means strong" and "strong-means-weak" idea breaks down a bit when you are talking about strong hands. In a lot of cases, for the more exuberant behavior, strong will just means strong.
On the other hand, weak-hand statements from bettors are very valuable. You will hardly ever hear a bluffer making a big bluff make a statement that weakens his range. (It does happen, but it'll usually be either from quirky players who say a lot of weird stuff or experienced players trying to trick other experienced players.)
So long story short: when someone making a big bet makes a strong-hand statement, try to think about other factors, not just the fact that it's a strong-hand statement. Factors like:
• How relaxed/loose is his verbal behavior? How boisterous? The more loose/dynamic it is, the more likely he's actually relaxed.
•*How unusual/strange is the statement? The more unusual the statement seems, the more likely it is that he's relaxed. If a bluffer's going to make a strong-hand statement, it'll usually be fairly neutral or something that is commonly heard. Bluffers generally don't want to make you suspicious by saying something weird; they'll be more likely to say something rather ambiguous or normal-sounding.
My book Verbal Poker Tells talks about these kinds of things. A lot of the patterns in the book are variations on interpreting weak-hand and strong-hand statements.
Thanks a lot for the answer.
I'm certainly gonna buy your book zac! Thanks again