Originally Posted by DEKE01
A poker friend of mine discovered this and it seems to work, ...sometimes...with bad players, and its not something you want to repeat very often. The bad player still has to have a made hand of some sort or you are wasting your time.
It's based on this analogy. The dog ignores the cat who ignores the dog. The dog chases the cat who stares at the dog in fear. The dog chases the cat who runs from the dog.
So to induce, be a cat and focus on your opponent, stare at them a few seconds and then look away just as soon as they look at you. Never look back at them accept in quick glances. Move your hands around on top of the table, count your chips, stack them and restack them, if your chips didn't fully cross the line, push them in a bit further with just the tip of your finger, and then do the hand jive thing dealers do so that the cameras can see your empty hands, just keep moving, take a sip of your drink, put it down, pick it up immediately and sip again. If your drink is empty, suck on that straw and make some noise. Order another drink by waving your hand for the drink lady, adjust your chair.
Don't do any of that in a clownish manner and if you can't figure out how to not be clownish, then don't try it.
It's worked for me with semi-good players on rare occasional, but is better with drunks and poor rec players. A good target is the type that seems to think their every action is designed to maximize their TV time; they are looking to make a hero call to show everyone how smart they are. In the same vein, a good target is the obvious rec player who is very proud of his poker expertise. The proud but dumb players are easy to spot because they like to offer unsolicited advice to everyone. Truly good players don't tell you how good they are.
Does this work all the time? Definitely not. Because not all dogs chase cats and any competent opponent is going to see through that act, at worst after you've done it once. Then you have to be aware that in a future hand, observant opponents might read your lack of movement as a bluff tell.
On the 2/5 table I play with all regs, I never do any of this stuff. On the 1/2 tables, where every player is hugely bad or a complete unknown, it's an occasional thing I use.
Here's another stupid one that works...sometimes. Normally I only use this at fun tables where I've been telling bad jokes and most everyone else is enjoying the party except for maybe that one guy on the big tilt.
At 1/2 where my bets can have odd numbers, I announce the bets with a name. You've heard lots of people say "speed limit" when they bet 55. It's that sort of thing.
88= German Artillery
33 = one each green, red, blue, white = baby rainbow
66 = double rainbow
8 = baby rainbow
133 = the BIG rainbow
59 = "I'm going to break the speed limit but not enough to get a ticket"
Sport related ones work great
9 = Joe Burrow, the best college QB ever
48 = Jimmy Johnson, the best NASCAR driver ever
77 = two Mickey Mantles - use that one on the old farts
And some that make no sense at all or require an explanation
63 = Golden Unicorn = nonsense
60 = Ricky Ricardo = the year he divorced Lucy
Why do this? If your opponent is thinking, "what is that effing idiot saying now?" he's not thinking about poker.
What's the goal of all this nonsense? It gets the table focused on a conversation. Sometimes it's about how stupid/nerdy I am and I'm OK with that. Usually the convo launches into why someone else was better at whatever sport. If I'm trying to induce a call with a tilty player, the happiness of the table just made him more tilty. If I want a fold, I use it on a contemplative player who will be distracted by the joviality or sports debate going on all about him.