I had a hand a couple weeks ago where I raised my AK and had one caller to the flop. I had been playing much more aggressively than normal because I won a few big pots that night.

He bluffed on the flop and turn, throwing out bets without delay. I correctly surmise he is afraid of the board, his actions seem erratic. River brings A, and he shoves. I should have folded, his mannerisms changed instantly. He cracked a slight smile, almost looked apologetic. He felt different than his first two bets and I wasn't too surprised when he turned over a flush made on the river.

Confidence is hard to fake. Confidence is casual, matter-of-fact.

Thats the right question, depends on the person. What is that person's attention on? Do they typically play the cards? Or do they spend a lot of their time scoping out other players? If they sensed weakness in the hand, the confidence could be from a bluff. Some players get a rush out of bluffing. If they are getting bored, they may be more inclined to start bluffing.

I'm fairly antsy myself, but usually don't have enough room at the table to comfortably move a lot. Some people have ticks like that, its just part of their personality. I saw a very vocal, boisterous player to my right reveal a Q for a flush, when deciding whether to call. His opponent had just bet the river on him. Opponent sees the Q, looks away, and his leg starts bouncing. Probable tell. In fact, he did have the A . He got excited when he realized his nut flush was almost assuredly going to get paid off. The unfortunate truth is that "objective" tells rarely exist. Tells are muddy to begin, and some players are studied on them and will avoid or subvert them.

Most people probably don't think about physical tells that much. Online new wave players aren't accustomed to them. Old players are somewhat jaded/skeptical about classic tells for the most part. Especially if you do this frequently, it should be clear to people its not a tell.

Ha! He really doesn't think of himself as a liar. I don't doubt the sincerity of his "I don't lie" statement, he believes it himself. People delude themselves for any number of reasons about any number of traits about themselves. Look at all the people blaming dealers and the cards for their own shortcomings.

I may have incorrectly folded to this guy if I were at your table. I can hear the lack of conviction in his reply though. He couldn't muster an entire sentence to defend the strength of his hand. It sounds like he rattled of some quip, looking to appease or otherwise be agreeable.

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Hindsight is 20/20 for tells and reading the table. Far too often, it doesn't all click together until the hand or the game is long over.

Years ago our family went to therapy as part of the process of finalizing a special needs sibling group adoption. While we were in therapy our shrink got a very good read on me. One day we were all sitting there and one of my future sons, who thought he might have a disease whenever it was mentioned in a TV program, asked our shrink, "Do I have ADD? The shrink replied, "No, but your father does."

He saw how I acted, talked, and fidgeted in my chair and recognized what it meant. His diagnosis was confirmed by my family doctor.

The point of this story is that the doctor had a baseline. He saw me in multiple sessions. He didn't make a quick read and decide that he had a tell. Once he had a baseline, if I wasn't fidgeting he would have known that something was up. That difference from my baseline behavior would have been a tell.

If you're always fidgeting, you're not giving off a tell. You have nothing to worry about.