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Learning how to read other peoples hands at the poker table is the most coveted skill that any poker player could ever want. The math is easy, I mean its right there to learn, but reading people is a masterful skill. Reading people never works perfectly because there is no one rule that works for every single person for telling whether they are bluffing or they have a good hand. Everyone is different, and therefore you have to read everyone different. However there are a few guidelines that one can follow.
The first thing you should do when joining a poker table is to look around and make as many observations about the people you are playing poker with as you can. You’ve heard the saying “Never judge a book by its cover,” well forget about it in this case. Get as many first impressions as you can. Who looks rich (rich people tend to play more loosely since they can afford a loss)? Who looks depressed and desperate (these people probably shouldn’t be at the poker due to gambling problems)? Who sounds smart? Who sounds dumb? Who looks weak? Who looks strong? Who looks like a first time poker player that’s going to call everything? Be very observant and unless people change your mind with their play, go with your instincts. Sometimes it’s good to sit out a couple hands in the beginning to get a couple reads on how people are going to play.
Two huge poker tells that could tell you if someone has a good hand whether or not are if your opponent glances at his chips right after he has looked at his hand, or if he leans in closer to the poker table, anxiously waiting for the hand to begin. If a player is leaning back it usually means he has a poor hand. Listen for confident voices for good hands and insecure voices for bad hands. When players are anxious to get the game going quickly when they are in the hand, it usually means they have a pretty good hand that could possibly be beat, and they want the game to speed up a little bit because they are extremely and impatiently interested on getting reads themselves. Poker reads obviously do not work all the time or else no one would ever lose. Be on the look out for reverse psychology.
Speaking of psychology, many professional pokers have claimed that the most influential books of their poker career had nothing at all to do with poker, but with psychology. If you are completely serious about poker, you should probably look into reading books that have to do with psychology or maybe even taking a psychology class at your local college. This would teach you how to read body language, and the behavior of liars or bluffers and people who are confident with their hands.
Some other good “tells” saying that your opponent has a good hand is if he acts like he’s disinterested in the hand, I he’s breathing hard like they can’t wait to collect your chips, or their hands are shaking, in that case they probably have the nuts. If someone has a band hand they might try to stare you down, which either means they are trying to scare you into folding or they’re not quite sure what you have and they can easily be beat. Some signs that scream that the person is trying to draw out on you, is if they take a long time to call, usually calculating their odds, or if they simply call your bet on the flop and turn.
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