Unconscious tells are more honest, if not necessarily more reliable, than deliberate ones. If one knows what one is looking for, it is generally easy to distinguish between the two. Deliberate eyeblinking is usually quite easy to spot.

Very valuable wisdom here. Often times I am easily able to spot the unconscious tells vs the deliberate ones, but I do struggle, especially against skilled and experienced players. The eye blinking is a good example, I remember a young kid in the Bellagio purposefully fluttering his eyes like a crack fiend butterfly whenever he had a strong hand. It was so over the top it was impossible not to notice and was a dead give away. But when the behavior is not so over the top, I do struggle in identifying if it is unconscious or not. Do you have any advice or recommendations how to better identify deliberate vs unconscious tells?

I've noticed heavy blinking when the nuts roll off for someone. the tendency is to not want to look at the best hand to conspicuously so the uncontrollable blinking begins on some players.

One way to think about tells is to separate them into two primary categories: waiting-for-action and post-bet.

Waiting-for-action tells are those that a player might have when he is first to act and waiting for another player to act.

Post-bet tells are those that a player might have after he has bet.

Post-bet tells are more likely to give away relaxation or anxiety, because putting out a big value bet or a big bluff is a much more likely place to observe anxiety or relaxation.

I say this because you guys were talking about blinking rates. A player who has a weak hand and who is waiting for an opponent to bet, and who is anxious, might blink a lot in that situation. The same player, having a weak hand and putting out a big bluff, and being anxious, might not blink at all.

Both of these involve the same player having a weak hand; but the situation (waiting-for-action vs. post-bet) is much different.

As Caro pointed out (and Bostick emphasized in this thread), thinking about unconscious vs. conscious behavior is important. I believe thinking about these situational categories is also very important and an often-overlooked area of studying body language in poker.

breathing heavily most often means a strong hand.

Most of the time I pick up "tells" unconsciously. That is I do not have to be looking at my opponent to get a tell. Perhaps its a change of breathing or a shifting of position or a pause in action I sense. Its more in the story they tell and how the tell it. Does their story make sense with respect to the board and the action? (Did their breathing say fit the story?)

N.B. by story I don't necessarily mean verbal story, I mean how they play.
when, how fast and how many chips they put into the pot, etc.

Are you ever going to answer to the fact you stated that a 50bb loss in a game is rare and a 100bb loss is "really really really rare"? Sounds like you don't understand basic poker.

*plonk!*

If we're talking about LHE, and "BB" means "big bets", then he's exactly right. I have suffered a few 50BB losses. I've yet to suffer a 100BB loss. This is consistent with my stats, which put my SD at about 13 BB/hr.

Mmmm. No.

The only "top pro" I can think of is Helmuth, and he sucks at cash games, and is only a "top pro" in tourneys.

I can not think of anyone else that does. Maybe Laak I suppose.

Ivey, Hanson, Dwan, Antonius, etc etc etc do not wear sun glasses.

It's so f-ing ridiculous that when I see some guy with sunglasses on, I pretty much conclude he's a total donk until I see proof otherwise.

I have yet to see proof otherwise.

LOL

When they eat the cookie they usually got it.