If you are new to the game of Texas Holdem, especially if you are transitioning from online Texas Holdem poker to the live poker game, you may be worried about tells. Tells are unconscious signals that players give off as to the strength of their hand.
You may have seen many players in tournaments wearing sunglasses, earphones and caps. They hope that by cutting off their opponent's access to any of their sensory inputs, they will protect themselves from giving off any tells.
As a beginning limit hold'em player, how much should you worry about tells?
Realistically, not that much. Most of the time when you are starting out, your opponents will be much too worried about their own hand to worry about you. Also, it is very rare that someone has an obvious tell that you might see in the movies, such as whistling whenever they are bluffing or eating a cookie a certain way when they have a hand.
Real tells tend to be more subtle, and usually noticeable only with careful observation and in the context of the particular player, that is, when a player deviates from their normal behavior pattern, it means something; but the meaning can vary a good deal depending on the player.
If you feel more comfortable starting out by wearing sunglasses or using some other means to hide your expression, go ahead. However, you should keep a few things in mind. One, by blocking your sensory inputs, you may be depriving yourself of more information about the other players than you are preventing them from getting. Two, while your face is the most obvious place for tells, it's not the only one. The way you move your hands, handle your chips or even shift in your chair can reveal information, and you may be less guarded about these things if your sunglasses make you feel safe from analysis.
Finally, there are more ways to give away information than body language. If you bet half the pot when you miss the flop and check when you hit it every time, discovering this is more valuable to your opponents than any facial tic. If you talk a lot when you are bluffing, or sit perfectly still, or do anything in a certain way when you are strong or weak, your sunglasses will not save you.
It is unlikely you have any kind of glaring tell that your average opponent can use against you. However, you will be at a disadvantage against your more observant opponents if you do not vary your play. Your best defence against giving away information is not to be predictable, and that means more than just showing up with different colored sunglasses whenever you sit down to play.
If you are interested in learning more about any aspect of Texas Hold’em Poker, whether it is articles about basic poker hands or advanced Texas Holdem strategy that you are looking,
pokerellas.com is the place to find it.
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