THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Increasing the Edge Odds
read the hands and intentions of every opponent. Reading opponents' hands is much more
effective than using marked cards and it is honest.
The question-type giveaways or tells are quite reliable and are particularly useful for pinpointing
the exact value of an opponent's hand. For example, if John holds trips and reads his opponent for
trips, he might use questions to find out who has the best hand. Excessive use of questions,
however, can rouse suspicion and decrease the usefulness of question-and-answer tells.
b. Remembering exposed cards and ghost hands (53)
By remembering all exposed cards, a player increases his accuracy in estimating investment and card
odds. In games with many players (eight or more), discarded and folded cards are often redealt.
Knowledge of those cards can be crucial for estimating meaningful investment odds. In some games,
discarded and folded cards are actually placed on the bottom of the deck without shuffling. (The good
player encourages that practice.) If those cards are redealt during the late rounds, the good player will
know what cards are to be dealt to whom . . . a huge advantage for the later rounds of big bets.
With disciplined concentration and practice, any player can learn to memorize all exposed cards. For the
discipline value alone, remembering exposed cards is always a worthwhile effort. But many players
excuse themselves from this chore by rationalizing that memorization of cards dissipates their
concentration on the other aspects of the game. That may be true when a player first tries to memorize
cards, but a disciplined training effort toward memorizing all exposed cards will ultimately increase his
concentration powers in every area of poker.
Remembering the exposed draw hands or the order of exposed stud cards from the previous deal can
bring financial rewards. Old hands often reappear on the next deal (ghost hands), especially when the
shuffling is in complete (the good player encourages sloppy and incomplete shuffling). For example, a
good player is sitting under the gun (on the dealer's left) and needs a king to fill his inside straight in fivecard
stud. But the last card dealt in that round (the dealer's card) is a king. The good player, rather than
being discouraged, recalls that the winner of the previous hand held three kings. Since the deck had been
poorly shuffled. the chances of the next card (his card) also being a king are good. Knowing this, he now
has a strong betting advantage.
John Finn memorizes all exposed and flashed cards He mentally organizes every exposed stud
card into one of the four following categories by saying to himself, for example, Sid's two of hearts
would help--
● my hand
● his (Sid's) hand
● another opponent's (e.g., Quintin's) hand
● no one's hand.
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