12. Reaching for chips to call your bet before you can make it. ###1/2 In poker language, this move means, "Of course I'm going to call your bet! It's such an easy decision for me that I don't even have to think about it. If you were betting to eliminate me, you can save that bet, since you can see that I'm going to call."

13. Delaying in calling your bet. ##1/2 A player who genuinely couldn't decide between folding and calling when you bet on the flop is more likely to fold if he does call and you bet again on the turn. He usually will have been looking for a miracle card, took one shot at it, and is willing to fold on the turn if he misses (which will happen most of the time).

14. Flashing one hole card. ##l/2 A player who makes sure you "accidentally" see one of his hole cards is bluffing. He almost never has what he wants you to think he does.
15. Behavior on fabulous-looking flops. ## Whenever the flop contains a high pair, three straight flush cards, or even three-of-a-kind, you should pause a second before acting on your hand. A player who threw away a hand with a card that would fit well with the flop will often let it be known.

How? Well, he might curse, moan, pound the table, slap his forehead, elbow his neighbor, or actually announce out loud what card he folded before the flop. You have to wait to give him a second to do one of these things. This is a very reliable tell since a player not in the hand has no reason to influence its play or outcome.

16. Unnecessarily showing the nuts at the end. #1/2 A player who does this might just be bragging, but sometimes it's because he intends to bluff you in the near future and he wants you to remember that he only plays the nuts.

17. Coaxing along an opponent's end decision. # Let's say a player bets into you, and you're slowly and reluctantly about to fold. It's apparent that you're about to exit the hand, and your opponent says or does something to help you confirm that you're making the "right" decision. He's bluffing. He wants you to hurry up and fold before you take a second to rethink what you're doing.

18. Showing visible disappointment. #### With a very big pot, if a player is on a draw to the nuts and misses on the end, he will often let you know about it. Again, the secret is that you have to wait a second for him to do it. He might exhale deeply, slump down in his chair, curse, look sad, turn his cards face up as a gesture of folding, throw his cards into the muck out of turn, hit the table, or tell you what hand he missed.

19. Rabbit hunting. ### Rabbit hunting is the term for, "Can I see the next card, please?" after the hand is over. It seems that bad players like to do that and good players don't.
20. Neat and conservative players. ##1/2 A person's style of doing one thing is usually also his style of doing most other things. A player who dresses and acts conservatively usually also plays conservatively.

21. Players in wheelchairs and walkers. ## Players who are wheelchair-bound or otherwise have physical trouble getting around like to stay put once they get in the game. They usually play conservatively but not excellently. They're generally Tight/Passive players.

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6. Seeing the flop and quickly looking away. If
you hold 6V6*, and the flop is A*K4lOV, the flop is easy to read even if you still have to take an extra second or two to make sure you've read it correctly. If you hold AVA«£, however, and the flop is 94A43*, it will look like this to you:

When you see this, you'll know instantly that you're going to bet. You'll quickly glance at your chips to make sure they're still there, and then you'll look away from the table, feigning total disinterest in the hand.
7. Covering one's mouth. *•* A player who covers his mouth after betting is usually bluffing. What you're seeing is a conflict between the external physical action of betting and the internal knowledge of knowing you're "lying."
8. Betting in a flamboyant style. ** A player who throws his chips into the pot in a forceful or obviously exaggerated manner is usually bluffing. At the very least, he's trying to intimidate you into checking into him on the next round.

9. Making directed bets. A player who calls a bet by throwing his chips in the specific direction of a particular player (usually the bettor) is trying to intimidate the bettor into checking on the next round.

10. Staring at other players. ###This tell occurs most often after the river card comes and a player has missed a big draw. He will often noticeably raise his head from looking down at the flop, turn it to the left or right to face his sole opponent squarely, and then stare right at him. In poker language, this move means, "I just missed my flush draw. I'm entitled to win this hand, but I can't call a bet. Don't you dare bet into me."

11. Calling your bet immediately. ### A player who calls your bet and has his chips in the pot almost before you do has a weak calling hand. He'd rather you hadn't bet. Since you did, he wants his apparently quick and easy call to cause you to have second thoughts about betting into him on the next round.

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There are a number of tells that you might see during the course of a hold 'em game. All of these tells are covered in more depth in my first book, Winner's Guide to Texas Hold 'Em Poker, in Mike Caro's fantastic book Caro's Book of Tells and in its companion video, Caro's Pro Poker Tells. All of these are available from Cardoza Publishing.

What follows is a list of those tells with a brief explanation of each one. What I've characterized as "tells" include both specific mannerisms and general personality types. To help you develop a feel for the relative value of each one, I've rated each tell for you using the following scale:

*-you won't see it often, has little value **-occurs often enough to help your hourly rate ***-common tell, well worth knowing, good value ***#-high frequency, very reliable, high value

l. Impatience. *•* A player who is in a hurry to play his hand usually has a decent hand. It won't be a great hand, though, because a player holding AiAV or KVK* will usually wait until it's his turn to act to let anything be known about his hand.

up in their chairs, put out their cigarettes, quickly finish their drinks, abruptly end conversations, or summarily dismiss any spectators usually have very good hands. You don't have to do any of these things if you intend to fold when it's your turn.

3. Showing a hand to a spectator. A player who shows his hand to a non-player when play begins usually has a good starting hand. A player who shows his hand to a non-player at the end of a hand, particularly when all of the cards are out and he is awaiting a call from a lone opponent, usually has a bad hand. Showing it is an effort to convince the other player that he's proud of his hand. When you see this tell, the bettor is usually betting as a stone cold bluff.

4. First play by a good player. Good players like to win the first hand they voluntarily enter the pot with, so they can then play with "your" money instead of theirs. Keep an eye on the player who usually doesn't play when he's in the small blind. If he does call in the small blind, he has a very good hand.

5. Staring at the flop. **** Players who continue to stare at the flop after the dealer turns it up usually did not flop anything. There's nothing there for them and it takes a few more seconds to double check it and make sure.

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The more players there are in the hand, the more possible variations there are in the way the hand will be played. Two players who have the four options of folding, calling, raising, and reraising could play a betting round one of sixteen different ways (4×4=16). Eight players who have those same options could theoretically play that same betting round one of 65,536 different ways! Of course, not every option is as equally likely as all of the other options. For example, I don't think you'll ever see everyone reraise and then fold!

In any event, if there are a lot of players in the pot to see the flop and you're in late position, your best strategy is to play defensively if you don't have a premium hand. You can do this in a few ways:

1. Not raising with two big unsuited cards. The only big hand you will normally make with these two cards is a straight, which is unlikely given that you haven't yet seen the flop. Besides, it's already too likely that you're beat before the flop. The most common outcome is that you'll pair one of your hole cards and your kicker will be useless.

2. Raising only for just the right reasons, andfolding after the flop if you miss. If your cards are suited and connected, then you have two ways to win. If you feel that the game conditions are to your liking, you can consider raising from late position to get value from your hand. You have to be sensible about it, however. You have to be willing and able to make a superior, professional-quality play when you see the flop: throw the hand away on the flop if you miss or only get a small piece of it. For example, if you have 6#5± and the flop is A*JV7*, do not try to make the straight.

Being able to raise for the right reason before the flop and then throw the hand away on the flop is one of the characteristics of a great player. Do not become committed to defending the hand just because you raised before the flop, as you will see bad players do.

Remember, once money goes into the pot, it's as if that money came from nowhere. It's just there. It did not come from you. How much money you personally have put into playing a hand is not a factor to consider when making any subsequent decision regarding that hand.
You can also raise with small pocket pairs before the flop in late position, if you can also throw these hands away on the flop if you miss. If there are eight other players in the hand, you will be getting 15-1 odds on your preflop raise. You can afford to miss quite a few times on the flop and still make a big profit in the long run if you play these hands the right way.

3. Not playing all hands just because you're in late position. Too many players think it's okay to play every hand from a late position. There are a lot of great advantages to playing in late position, but the mere fact that you're in late position cannot turn purely garbage hands into premium hands. Do not play hands like K*6V, 7*2*, 9444, Q*5*, J43* or 10*4*, just because you're in late position and you're getting big pot odds.

Here's a little secret: you can never get big enough pot odds to play garbage hands like these unless you're in the big blind and no one has raised. To slightly paraphrase that old saying: "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken crap."

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3. A play that wins you the blinds, when successful, adds significantly to your hourly rate, which is what all of this is really about. If you can successfully steal the blinds only twice an hour, you will be winning almost three small bets per hour, which is almost 1.5 big bets per hour. Remember how I said that the average professional hold 'em player considers himself successful if he can earn 1-2 big bets per hour? I know a few players whose overall skill at the game I would consider to be mediocre-to-average, but they're professional late position players and blind stealers. There's no reason you can't be, too.

4. When you raise in late position, your opponents won't know for sure which one of the five reasons to raise it is that you have in mind, although they will often correctly suspect that it's primarily a move based on position and very small pot odds. In other words, they will believe that most of the time you raise in late position, you're raising mainly to eliminate players. They won't be certain, though, and it's always good to keep your opponents guessing.

5. By making this type of play regularly (don't overdo it, or your opponents will just start calling you all the time), you're setting your opponents up for a future play. You won't always have a second-rate hand when you raise in late position. Sometimes you'll have that AA, KK or AKs when you raise, and you'll make a lot of money from the players who call you all the way down, just because they think you have K9 or QIO, which they can beat.

6. If you buy the button and one (or both) of the blinds calls your preflop raise, you'll have position on him (them) throughout the hand.

7. If you have an ace, and you raise in late position as the first one in, you may find yourself against just one opponent on the river. In that case, your ace is a big card. You might win with just ace-high against that one player, where king-high and queen-high won t win. With an ace, your raise was a fairly safe play.

You have an entirely different situation if you're in late position and a lot of players have entered the pot ahead of you. Now you have to consider a few things:
1. The players in early position probably have very good cards.
2. The players in middle position have good drawing hands, otherwise one of them would have raised before the flop.

3. Because of their position and the pot odds they were getting when they called, other players (besides you) in late position might have longshot draws, such as small pairs and medium suited connectors (7^64, 6V5V, or even 5*4*).

4. One of the players in early position might have limped in with a Group 1 hand (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs) and is waiting to reraise if you raise.

5. If such a reraise happens, one of the other players might want to make it three or four bets to go just for the sake of building the pot.

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For purposes of this discussion, late position is defined as being on the button or one or two seats to the right of the button. Don't forget the one major inherent advantage of being in late position: you have more information than your opponents had when deciding what to bet on each round. You're in a good position throughout the hand, so you also have a lesser chance of being raised when you call a bet.
Before the Flop

When you are in late position and the action comes around to you, other players may or may not have already called the big blind. Whether you're first in the pot or not, there's one thing that you must do every time you make a decision regarding whether to play your hand: look at the players between you and the big blind and determine their player profiles.
I'm not saying you have to know everything about your opponents. You're mainly interested in knowing if they are the type of players that will defend their blinds if you raise. Are they passive or aggressive? Are they tight or loose? Does the player on the button always play his button? Some low limit players see the flop with any two cards when they are on the button.

When you're in late position, no one else has entered the pot, and you have what would ordinarily be a calling hand, you should strongly consider raising, especially if you have an ace in your hand. There are many good reasons for this play:

1. If you are one or two seats to the right of the button, this raise might force the player(s) between you and the button to fold, thereby making you the last player (by position) to have a hand. This is called buying the button.

2. You might force everyone to fold and you'll win the blinds. Don't make the common beginner's mistake of thinking that it's not worth winning a very small pot made up of only the blinds. It's a very valuable win for you, because that small pot will give you the chips you need to post the blinds yourself and play another round.

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The next time you play in your regular game, keep track of every time the pot is raised before the flop. Watch the big blind and record the result of how he plays. Count only those hands where the big blind stays in the whole time and turns his hand face up at the end of the hand. Do not include hands in which the big blind does not play to the river or call a bet on the river.

All you need to keep track of is whether the big blind wins the hand. Keep two separate records: one for those times when other players call a preflop raise in the big blind, and one for those times when you're the one in the big blind.

Practice this exercise for two consecutive playing sessions. Compare your winning percentages to those of the other players. For the next two playing sessions, after that, just keep track of how you fare when calling raises before the flop in the big blind.
Your winning percentage should improve as you keep correct big blind play in mind. Record your results and keep them where you can easily find them later. After you've completed this book and a year or so has passed, try checking yourself again and comparing those results to the first time you tried this strategy. Good luck!

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If there are six callers including the big blind, then there's $19 in the pot. You have to divide your $2 call into $19 to get your odds. In this case it's 9.5 to 1, whereas if you had to call the whole bet, your odds would be only 6.33 to 1.

What hands should you call a raise with, if you're in the big blind? As I've said, people generally play too loose in this situation, often because of two factors:

1. You rarely know just what the raiser has. My years of experience have taught me that if you're a typical player, you'll underestimate or just plain ignore the strength of the raiser's hand, and you'll overestimate the value of your own hand. These two mistakes conspire to encourage you to call and see the flop with a lot of hands that should be folded.

2. You can never be sure of how the future action in the hand will go. It may require you to call bets and raises that you'd rather not.

Refer to the list of groups of hands in Chapter 9, the chapter called "Starting Hands." In the big blind, you would certainly want to call a preflop raise with these hands. These are all good, profitable hands, if you have the right pot odds to see the flop. Other hands do not play well head-up, especially if the other player has raised, telling you that he probably has a Group 1 or 2 hand. Low hands can and do win, but you can go a long time between wins with them, so you need big odds to play these inferior hands.

If you're in the small blind, you should play even fewer hands than you do in the big blind. Can you see why? It's because when you're in the small blind, there's another player behind you who can reraise, thereby giving you worse odds and making it more unlikely for you to win the hand (I'm talking about the big blind, in case you didn't realize it). When you're in the small blind, remember that you'll be in the worst possible position throughout the hand. You can't win the hand by checking, and bluffs from an early position are harder to pull off.

There's one more thing to consider when deciding to call a preflop raise from either blind. You have terrible position for the entire hand, and the raiser is in a much better spot. Before you call, therefore, you need to know how well the raiser plays. If he's a genuinely good player, you should not call as often with average hands. If he's a bad player, or happens to be playing very loosely, you can also play a little more loosely.
Remember, your profit in this game comes from the mistakes your opponents make. If the preflop raiser is a player who doesn't make many mistakes, and his raise tells you that he wants to win this hand, maybe you should think about letting him win it. You can win the next one.

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If you're in the big blind and you hear the word, "Raise," you should automatically begin a decisionmaking process while the action is coming back around to you. Here's what you might be thinking:

"All right, I'm in the big blind. The player on my left called, the next player folded, and there are two bets in the pot. The next player raised, making a total of four bets in the pot. Everyone else folded around to me, and I either have to call one more bet or fold.

"The pot is offering me 4 to 1 odds, and the player between me and the raiser willprobably just call also, so my implied odds are likely to be 5 to 1. Therefore, I need a 1 out of 6 chance of winning this hand just to break even in the long run. Do the cards I'm holding right now give me that 1 out of6 chance of winning, assuming the raiser has what he's supposed to have?"

Maybe your situation was a little different:
"I'm in the big blind and there's been a raise. Everyone else has folded around to me. There are three bets in the pot, and the raiser obviously has a good hand. Do I have at least a 1 out of 4 chance of winning this hand?"
Or maybe what happened was:

'I'm in the big blind. There's been a raise. Everyone has called, and now it's my turn to act. There are nineteen bets in the pot, and I can call without fear of another raise, because the raiser is on my immediate left. Do I have a 1 out of20 chance of winning this hand?"

To keep things simple, both of these examples ignore the effect of the rake and the jackpot drop, if there is one. If the rake is $4 maximum per hand, and the jackpot drop is $ 1 per hand, that's quite a lot when the pot is very small. Your odds could be reduced from 3 to 1 to 1.5 to 1 when there's just you and the raiser in the hand.
On the other hand, the larger the pot, the less effect the rake has on your pot odds. Remember to take the rake and the jackpot drop into account when figuring your pot odds and making your decision.

If you're in the small blind, you have a different situation. Instead of the full $3, you have to call only $2 more, so the math is a little different. When the action is coming around to you, you have to keep track of the size of the pot in terms of actual dollars, not just number of bets.

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