Physical tells at a table come in all shapes and sizes.
A player’s hand might shake as he bets. Or his posture might change. Or he might become talkative when he hasn’t completed a sentence previously.
Knowing what the tells indicate is the key. The more you look for them, the better you can become at deciphering them, but wild pro Gavin Smith can back up the fact that even the best can get it wrong.
Gavin Smith
ACE OF SPADES
5 OF HEARTS
The flop
10 OF DIAMONDS
10 OF CLUBS
5 OF DIAMONDS
The turn
3 OF DIAMONDS
The river
ACE OF HEARTS
At the World Poker Tour’s $15,000 buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2007, with blinds at $200-$400 plus a $50 ante, a player in middle position open-raised to $1,200. Smith, holding A-5 offsuit, called on the button.
“I’m not much of a re-raiser,” said Smith, who has a WPT title. “I tend to flat-call almost all the time. It’s just the way I choose to play my game. It disguises when I have big hands and it allows me to play a lot more junk. I’m comfortable enough playing after the flop.”
The small blind folded, the big blind called, so three players took a flop of 10-10-5, two diamonds The big blind and the initial raiser checked. Smith bet $2,500, a little more than half the pot.
“It’s very likely I have the best hand there,” said Smith, a pro from the Full Tilt Poker online site. “There are some draws, and you don’t want some guy with Q-J to have a free rip at it.”
The big blind called. The intial raiser folded.
“When the big blind called, I didn’t really think he was drawing,” Smith said. “He could have a 10, but he’d raise with a 10 and a diamond draw out there. I thought his likely holding was a 5, and I had the best 5.”
The turn came the 3 of diamonds, completing a possible flush. The big blind checked. Smith checked behind him.
“If I’m wrong and he has diamonds, I don’t want to get check-raised and get blown off this pot,” Smith said.
The river came the ace of hearts, giving Smith aces up. The big blind bet out $5,000, almost half of Smith’s $12,000 stack.
“Obviously he could have a hand, but my feeling on the flop was that he didn’t have me beat,” Smith said. “He could have me beat with a higher pocket pair than 5s, but I didn’t think he was huge. And now I’ve hit the ace.
“But he’s super-confident, and most people aren’t. He was leaning back and staring me down and taking drinks. That’s not really indicative of someone who has that great of a hand. Usually, when they’re confrontational, it’s a sign they have a weaker hand. Strong means weak and weak means strong.”
Smith called. His opponent showed a 10 for trips.
“I was wrong,” Smith said. “It was a bad read.”
Table talk
Open-raise: To be the first player to voluntarily enter the pot with a bet larger than the amount of the big blind.
