Disguising your own tells

Bloggers / Matthew Pitt / 10 October 2009 / Leave a Comment

Blogger Matthew Pitt talks about some of the common techniques employed by poker players to disguise their tells when playing live poker.

Live poker is gaining in popularity, be it tournaments at the casino, games held at the local pub or home games between friends and family. Much has been written about spotting the tells given off by your opponents but how do you disguise your own and prevent people getting a read on you?

The most popular way to disguise a tell is to wear sunglasses at the table. When humans experience pleasure or excitement, as in hitting the flop hard in the case of poker, their pupils dilate. This response is a reflex and is impossible to stop, no matter how hard you try to, you simply do not have control. Wearing sunglasses stops your opponents seeing your pupils dilate but also allows you to look at the board or your opponents without them seeing you doing so.

Another popular way to prevent giving of tells is to wear some earphones and listen to your favourite music on your ipod or mp3 player. Not only can doing this relax you it also reduces the chances of engaging in conversation with players who might be able to extract information from you. If you decide to wear headphones, I'd advocate only wearing the left one as this will allow you to still hear the verbal actions of the players to your right so you know when it is your turn to act.

You should always try to keep a uniform stance when you are in a hand, whether you are strong or weak. A popular stance is to sit with your head on your hands or fists, a pose adopted by the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson. Sitting like this prevents you from giving away information with your hands such as steeping, which is a sign of strength and it covers the major vein in your neck which can pulsate when you are excited, again a sign of strength.

The final two tips are probably the easiest to put into practice as they concern your physical movements. The first is to make sure you do not act out of turn. It should be obvious that reaching for your chips before the action is on you shows immense strength as it appears you simply cannot wait to make a bet. Also, try not to make any sudden moves or alter your posture. If a player looks at his hole cards and likes them, he will naturally sit up or lean forward portraying strength, the best way to combat this would be to become robotic and have a stance for checking your hole cards then going straight into the fist on hands pose whilst you are in a hand.