Understanding How To Use Observation In Poker
By all accounts, a person’s ability to observe everything that is going on, make sense of these observations, and use them for advantage is a key component to effective poker playing. Like any skill, it takes a lot of deliberate effort and practice to become an effective poker observer, but doing so will radically improve your game and your chances for success. A player’s observational skill is one of the key factors that differentiate good poker players from bad ones. (more…)
5 comments February 25th, 2010
Everybody has a ‘tell.’ Even the best of the best poker players have tells. Only, you need a shrewd brain and sharp eyes to spot the not so obvious tell. In real poker, you need to study your fellow players as much as you gauge the strength of your own hand. You’ll absolutely need to watch slight mannerisms and subtle reactions of your opponents, which will reveal to you the strengths of your opponent hands. Whistling, running a hand through the hair, fidgety behavior, eye contact or avoidance of it, perspiration, tapping of fingers, shaking legs, table talk, or even the complete absence of any of these signs could reveal the hand your opponents are holding. There are common tells that apply to everybody, but when you reach the higher levels of poker play, you’ll not find any common tells. However, even the top players have their own tells, and you’ll just have to raise your observation skills to spot the ‘tells’ that give away the hands of the top players. 
We’ve all seen enough poker movies to know what “tells” are. If you’re new to the game, you’re probably giving things away without even realizing it. Don’t worry. I’m going to help you fix the problem right now. I actually wrote this to help players recognize tells in their opponents. But, if you’re reading and saying to yourself, “Geez, I do that.” you’re in trouble. Fix it or prepare to get eaten alive. 
Advanced poker is much more about playing one’s opponents than the cards. The psychological aspect of the game gets front seat, and subtle things (like all sorts of poker tells) become much more important. These are the circumstances under which bluffing inevitably rears its head. Whether it’s a blind-stealing semi-bluff, or a full one, bluffing is going to be present in the game, one way or another. Knowing how to read your opponents, the board and the betting patterns can come in extremely handy in this situation.