+Mike Caro - Caros Book Of Poker Tells.pdf - Time Out Hut

MCU POKER CHART NOTES
(See corresponding numbers within chart.)
1) You're in the small blind. Your ten-nine suited is a hand you might sometimes throw away.
But here it's probably profitable. You have bad position, because you'll have to act first on all
subsequent rounds of betting, but the fact that the first player to act may have indicated
weakness when he didn't raise the big blind (only called) is comforting. And the important fact
that you're getting a 25 percent discount, because you only have to put in $75, not $100, to call
the $100 bet is almost certainly enough to make this hand playable. Don't look for a big average
profit when you play hands like this in the small blind, but you should earn some profit overall.
2) The big blind has an opportunity to just call, to fold, or to raise. Note that just calling here,
with the intention of seeing the flop for free, is not as safe as it seems.
That's because his call won't close the betting. I use the term close the betting to mean that if a
player calls, nobody else can raise afterward. This would have been the case had Player #3
raised and — acting before your call — both Player #6 and #10 called. As it is now, his call
won't close the betting and, in fact, there are a whole lot of betting sequences that could work
against Player #2 if he has a borderline hand — sequences that include more than one additional
raise. But, in this case, Player #2 isn't worried about that, because he does the reraising himself.
We'll never find out what he has, because he'll fold on the turn (4 th board card).
3) When the action returns to you, this is an automatic call. There's already $600 out there and it
costs you just $50 to call. You'll probably need to see a lucky flop, but you can't fold with these
12-to-l pot odds. And, remember the concept we just talked about. This is a safe call, because it
will close the betting.
4) You don't look at the flop, in accordance with other advice in this book. That's because you
want to be spotting tells, and you can often do that by watching other players look at the flop.
Nothing here, though. You are first to act. You seriously consider betting.
Because these are aggressive opponents, there's a chance that everyone played high cards
without a queen, or pairs smaller than the nines you've just flopped — or something else
entirely. If that's the case, you might be able to take the pot right now, benefit from calls, or just
chase some potential winners out of the pot. All that can be good. But you'd be more likely to
make that daring bet against one or two opponents. Three makes it more problematic. You
decide to check. This is what I'd do most of the time, although I would frequently bet. Player #2
also checks. Player #6 bets $50. "Who didn't know that was corning?" you think to yourself,
because Player #6" is one of the most consistent bluffers you've ever seen. He fires chips at
every opportunity, with seeming disregard for what he's holding.
THE TELL. But, wait! He didn't just bet $50, he did something else at the same time —
something you noticed. He semi-shrugged as he bet. It wasn't the blatant sort of shrug you see in
the accompanying photo, but it was enough to get the message across. This player is trying to
convey doubt about his hand, but he has none. It's an act. He has a queen! Almost nothing else
would cause this reaction. He stopped raising before the flop, so it's unlikely he has a pocket pair
of kings or aces, which would also make him proud. Sure, you're getting 15-to-l pot odds to call,
but that's not going to do you much good if your opponent holds a queen. And this classic tell
makes it overwhelmingly likely that he does, so you fold. And, as you can see, you did the right
thing.
68