Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
Tells are a level.
In my experience, really great players understand the game, the math, and they play against their opponents range, think through hands,
and THEN
they also have superhuman poker instinct, that one time in a thousand, without even looking for a tell, they will instinctively notice something that causes them to make a +EV decision.
If everytime you have to make a tough decision,
then you start looking for tells to make that decision ... good luck bro, gonna level yourself big time.
I largely agree with this. When I am playing my best and really tuned in to the game, I go with my instinct on what someone is doing just looking at them as a whole and and I am usually correct. I'll catch bluffs or weaker hands or fold to stronger hands and I'm not sure exactly what I saw that made me just "know" what was going on. I usually play with people I know though and I think that has a lot to do with it.
When I'm not in "the zone" and I find myself trying to interpret individual actions as tells I usually end up being incorrect and basically looking for a reason to call or fold (usually talk myself into calling).
Example: I had QQ and a tough villain who can and will bluff, limped from UTG then re-raised me all in. I just KNEW he had AA based on his demeanor (the action was part of the puzzle too of course). When I was looking at him and getting him to talk, he was so relaxed and clearly had absolutely no fear at all about what I had... but then someone started to say something at the table that they shouldn't have about what they had folded and villain told them to stop talking and in doing so he acted weak, then he changed it to sound strong and I started with the whole "weak means strong but then he acted strong which means weak." and I call into his obvious AA like a moron.
Just one case where if I had just trusted my first impression instead of trying to follow the "tell rules" I would have been better off.
There are definitely tells for people but I think they are personalized and until you see a pattern with an individual, you can't trust the generic tells and should stick to the usual methods for determining your actions.
Example: His hand may be shaking but Michael J Fox doesn't have the nuts every-time he bets.