Texas Hold'em Poker - How to Read People like a Book

A Tell is a sign of any sort, verbal, physical, or psychological which provides you with information about another player's poker hand. You can imagine how powerful it is to know basic information about another player's hand. In this series of articles I will show you exactly how to do this. I have been paid to teach these techniques to other players but as a lucky reader of Associated Content, I will show you how simple it is for free.

First let me debunk one myth that many, if not most poker player's have. They believe the key to reading a person is in their eyes. That is why you see so many players wearing dark or reflective sunglasses. They really believe that hiding their eyes is equivalent to hiding their tells. Even Kenny Roger's sings about this in The Gambler and I quote:

He said, son, I've made a life out of readin peoples faces,
And knowin what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.

Well the eyes are very important in poker and you should never wear dark glasses because you won't see as well with them and you want to see as well as possible. Even the act of putting on the glasses can tell a good poker player more about your hand than your eyes ever could. Why does this myth exist? Simple, poker professionals want you to think this is important to be able to give you a false sense of security while they are reading your other tells like a book.

This first article deals with psychological tells. Now let me say that if you can read a tell of a professional poker player like Gus Hansen, the famous Danish player who is one of the hottest players on The World Poker Tour you can read anyone. Gus Hansen plays many hands, good hands and garbage hands which he tries to bluff at or hopes for a good flop. Here is his tell. He plays the garbage hand more strongly and bets higher than when he plays a good hand. This confuses most people but not me and now not you either. If he bets more than 8 times the big blind on his first two cards, including an all-in bet, he has two weak cards. If he limps in or bets 3 to 5 times the big blind he has a very good first two cards.

Sometimes he goes in with say 8 4 and bets high. Usually he bets high and steals the blinds. Sometimes he will actually win with these two cards, say if two 4's flop giving him trips or an 8 and 4 flop giving him two pair. When he bets high you should re-raise him provided you have a great first two cards such as AA, KK, QQ, JJ, tens, 99, AK, AQ suited or not. Otherwise don't play the hand with mediocre cards.

This is a psychological, aggressive move which often works for him. What is worse is that if someone fold good cards and sees he only had 8 4 they would feel stupid and go on tilt (i.e. start to play recklessly).

So how did I know this? How can you spot a psychological tell? The answer is to watch your opponents closely for consistent moves. Make notes in a small note book. You are allowed to do this at a table. Observation is everything. If a person Bets high and has pocket aces, then bets high again and has pocket queens you can be sure he waits and bets on good hands only. If he bets on too many hands, bets too aggressively then he has to be betting on some bad hands. If he bets very high on a bad hand that should be noted and after several such ploys, you should have him. Then lower the boom.