Hello fellow 2+2ers. I'm approaching 100 hours of live poker and I'd like to think I've picked up a few tells along the way. Let's see if the rest of the forum read the way I do.

Assume you are a 22 year old skinny Asian kid that could pass for 10th grade. It's 2:00 AM when you walk into the Mandalay Bay pokerroom. You're glad to get out of the 120 degree heat (it's summertime) and you quickly find a seat at a 7 handed 200NL game. You fold until you pick 8:spade:8:club: on the Button. 2 limpers, you raise 'um up, but only the Big Blind calls. HU to the flop for $27, effective stacks are $200.

4:heart:2:spade:J:club: ($27)

Big Blind leads into you for $20! You slightly tilt your head as you study Big Blind. He looks to about 25 years old, also Asian, dresses like a gangster, has another asian gangster friend sitting next to him. A plastic cup filled with a dark murky liquid sits cradled in his left hand. In the five hands you've been here villain has raised two of them and limped the rest. His postflop play seems to be aggressive too, but you haven't seen him showdown anything.

4:heart:2:spade:Q:club:3:spade: ($67)

You end up calling after ten seconds or so. Big Blind's lips sorts of scrunches inwards and upwards as he stacks nine redbirds ($45) in two stacks with one on top. He glances at you and looks at his chips as he slides it towards the center of the table. You get a constipated look on your face. Big Blind's buddy sees this and starts jawing off. "You got this one man. He ain't got sh**." Big Blind gets a goofy grin on his face. You think some more before asking, "You gonna show me if I fold?" Big Blind instantly replies, "Hell nah man!"

Conclusion: everyone at this table is no longer allowed to watch any television, especially not tv poker. Ever. No matter what.

Schmuck who can't seem to fathom the "one friggin' player to a friggin' hand rule" gets a kitn.

Al

Where is option "Stare him down for 15 minutes"

I would have probably raised him on the flop. His 20 dollar lead out is a probe bet. He might have called you with something like A-4 and wanted to see where he was in the hand. If you had a hand like A-10 or K-Q, you might be compelled to fold right there.

He made an information bet, so you should make an information raise. You'll accomplish a couple of things:

1 - If he has nothing, you'll take the pot down right there picking off his bluff.
2 - If he has a strong hand, and you suspect he can come over the top of you, you can be done with the hand right there, and lose a minimum.
3 - You are clarifying your hand. In position, this is a strong move. How can he not give you credit for A-J, Q-Q, K-K, or A-A with the pre-flop raise, and continued strength post-flop.

Bottom line, he's going to need a real hand to continue if you raise him on the flop. If he does... he does. I'd say you were in front, by the description of the villian.

Hope the opinion helps. Anyone else for opinions?

35o ldo.

The first thing I'd do would be yelling at the dealer or whoever is responsible for changing the flop J into a turn Q . Though, it is Mandalay Bay, and though I've never played there, its reputation precedes it...

I went with call he's weak. Mostly because I've found that generally when a player quickly looks at me while making a bet, he's scared and hoping to not see me instantly say "call!". Raise it up also works, incase he has a weak Jack (or weak Queen), but unless I'm sure of the tell on this particular player, I'd just call.

The little chatter at the end does confuse things, as there are a few mixed tells in here, in my opinion. Generally, if a player shows his hand to a friend, it means he has a good hand. But I don't know if he actually showed it to his friend, or his friend was just guessing that the hand was good. Usually I'd ignore the response to the question "Will you show?" as there is far too much room for acting and psychological warfare to take place, and I'd go with a physical tell and betting pattern, and while nothing is too indicative from his betting in this hand (imo), the 'glance tell' would push me to call. But, as Caro says, players want to call, and will look for anything that will tell them to call. :P

Well the Q on the turn is supposed to be a J. I'm sorta hating this software now because it only lets you have one poll in a thread. I thought I was for sure beat when villain replied, "Hell nah, I'm not going to show you my hand". I folded and villain showed me pocket nines. I'm still don't know if villain liked his hand or not.

This expression on his face with the lips is a negative expression which in this case should be read as weakness. Once he got the extra information from your faked expression/information from his buddy, he liked his hand, until then you were golden.

You might want to spend a little time on the subject FACS by Paul Ekman since you are already paying attention to such things and trying to fake them yourself.

i like raising on the flop. from the description it sounds like a player who will fire at every street so you can also wait for a better spot

As stated earlier, his $20 bet into a pot of $27, on a non scary, no flush draw, unlikely straight draw board, just screams weakness. If he has a J, I'd figure him to either bet small to build the pot for a large turn bet, or a check to possibly C/R your c-bet.

A reraise to $70 or $75 would almost definitely have taken it down right there.

At worst, he calls your raise, and you either:
a) get a free ride to the river
b) he bets the turn and you now shut down

Then again, since we all know the end result, my opinion is biased.