THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Increasing the Edge Odds
Dealer * 6 2
Active players 7 1
Kibitzers and peekers 2 1
Folded players 9 3
Total ___
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* Also, the bottom card of the deck is exposed 75 percent of the time.
These data show that in addition to seeing his own cards, John sees over half the deck in an
average game of draw poker--just by keeping his eyes open. The limit he goes to see flashed cards
is illustrated below:
Mike Bell is a new player. John does not yet know his habits and must rely on other tools to read
him--such as seeing flashed cards.
The game is lowball draw with one twist. The betting is heavy, and the pot grows large. John has a
fairly good hand (a seven low) and does not twist. Mike bets heavily and then draws one card.
John figures he is drawing to a very good low hand, perhaps to a six low.
John bets. Ted Fehr pretends to have a good hand, but just calls--John reads him for a poor nine
low. Everyone else folds except Mike Bell, who holds his cards close to his face and slowly squeezes
them open; John studies Mike's face very closely. Actually he is not looking at his face, but is
watching the reflection in his eyeglasses. When Mike opens his hand, John sees the scattered dots
of low cards plus the massive design of a picture card reflecting in the glasses. (You never knew
that?... Try it, especially if your bespectacled victim has a strong light directly over or behind his
head. Occasionally a crucial card can even be identified in a player's bare eyeball.)
In trying to lure a bluff from the new player, John simply checks. Having already put $100 into
the pot, Mike falls into the trap by making a $50 bluff bet. If John had not seen the reflection of a
picture card in Mike's glasses, he might have folded. But now he not only calls the bluff bet with
confidence, but tries a little experiment--he raises $1. Ted folds; and Mike, biting his lip after his
bluff failure, falls into the trap again--he tries a desperate double bluff by raising $50. His error?
He refuses to accept his first mistake and repeats his error.... Also, he holds cards too close to his
glasses.
http://www.neo-tech.com/poker/part3b.html (16 of 21)9/17/2004 12:18:47 PM
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