Daniel Negreanu – Tip of the Week

Tells

You've no doubt heard the myth about needing a poker face to play the game well. I'm going to let you in on a little secret today. Poker isn't about reading facial tics—it's about reading people.

What's the difference you ask?

Well, when you hear the term, 'reading your opponent,' it doesn't necessarily mean that you are looking for body language clues. More often than not, the tells you're looking for come from reading your opponents' betting patterns. There is a famous poker player out there who claims that he can "see through your soul." No, he can't. Trust me. Some top pros might want you to believe that type of hype so they can garner a psychological edge over you. The truth is, an elite poker player doesn't focus much on body language. Instead, he tries to understand how you think based on the hands you play and how you play them. He isn't looking for some obscure nostril flare or eye twitch to make a decision, but you can bet he's delving into his memory bank and comparing notes from previous hands.

He's likely asking himself questions such as, "How much did my opponent bet the last time he was bluffing?" Or, "When he flops three of a kind, does he usually check to trap me or does he bet right out to protect his hand?" So, those physical tells that television commentators like to go on about are for the most part a bunch of hogwash! Watch me on television and you'll see that I make all kinds of strange faces. Good luck trying to figure out what they mean.

Reading tells and reading people are two separate skills that are often lumped together, but they are, in fact, very different. Reading tells is the ability to recognize the way people look when they are bluffing versus telling the truth. Reading people deals more with the ability to understand how someone thinks based on various clues you can put together.