Plays That Tip Your Hand

All poker players like to think they're sneaky, but some aren't quite as unpredictable as they think. In my last column, I discussed three "giveaway" plays that will tell your opponents what kind of hand you have - if they're paying attention. In this column, I have three more giveaway plays for you to look for when you play.

The Fooling-Around Raise
This play has been around forever. I saw it in limit hold'em games, and now I see it again in no-limit hold'em games. Only a few players do it, but those who do tend to do it again and again. I'll call it the "fooling-around" raise.

Here's how it goes in no-limit: Some guy limps in, or maybe he calls a regular-sized raise. Then, another player behind him raises. There might be a call or two, and then our original caller decides to reraise. But it's not a big reraise (that might imply a big hand). It's a small raise, perhaps a minimum raise. Recently in a $1-$2 game, I saw this fool-around raiser call $2, and then when it was $12 back to him, he made it $22 to go. He had pocket threes.

Then, after a $10 raise and a call, I saw him make it $20 to go. He had J-9 that time.

Then he limped in for $2, and I made it $15 with pocket queens. A tight player called from one of the blinds (very likely a small or medium pocket pair or A-K). The fool-around guy made it $30 to go. I reraised $60 more. The tight player whined about wanting to see a flop and folded. Then, the fool-around guy grinned and folded.

I've seen these fooling-around raises regularly for as long as I've been playing. Again, only a small percentage of players make them, but those who do tend to make them regularly. They usually choose drawing hands, such as connectors or small pocket pairs. Be on the lookout. They are very exploitable, so if you find one of them in your game, rejoice.

The Nervous Raise
A player who typically makes preflop raises of $30 or so in a $5-$10 game makes it $60 to go from under the gun. For some players, this raise screams one thing, "I have pocket jacks!" It could be tens, maybe A-K, perhaps queens. But that's about it. And the prime suspect? Jacks.

The psychology is simple. The raiser is thinking, "I know that pocket jacks is a good hand, but I hate it. I always seem to lose with it. I'd rather everyone just fold so that I can pick up the blinds. Let me raise an extra-large amount this time to help make that happen." The irony is that the out-of-position, extra-large raise often just creates difficult situations that a normal raise wouldn't. That's especially true if you call gleefully behind them, knowing exactly what they have. But irony aside, for some players, this nervous raise is a dead giveaway.

The Speech
If you play live, or if you've watched live play on TV, you've heard it. You make a bet, and then your opponent goes into the tank. He starts babbling. "You must have hit it. You hit it, huh? You made a flush. You made the darn flush on me." Blah, blah, blah.

The speech means one of two things: Your opponent is genuinely in the tank and is retching about whether to call or not, or he's Hollywooding, has the nuts, and wants to seem weak so that he can get the last of your cash.

The giveaway, then, is how your opponent reacts after the speech. If it's the river and he just calls, he was honestly in the tank. If it's the river and he raises, however, he was Hollywooding and actually has a monster. People don't give the speech and then raise as a bluff. The speech followed by aggression is a dead giveaway for a huge hand.

I played a hand recently that made me think of this giveaway. It was a $2-$5 blinds game, and my opponent had about $450 total. I had him covered. I had the 2 2 in the big blind and called a $5 raise in a fourhanded pot. The flop came 7 5 5. I checked, and it was checked around. The turn was the 2, and I bet $35. Two players called. The river was the 9, putting a possible straight and a backdoor flush on board. I had a somewhat bluffy image (I thought so, at least) at the time, so I bet $200, hoping to perhaps get a suspicious call. The next player started with the speech. "You hit the backdoor flush, huh? I knew I should have bet earlier. Darn flush." Blah, blah, blah.

After about a minute of the speech, he moved in for a little over $200 more! The other player folded, and I called. He showed 7-7 for the flopped full house.

Giving the speech and then raising is such a strong giveaway for a monster hand that it's getting close to correct for me to fold my full house! I'm getting nearly 4-to-1 to call, but once he mentions that he's "afraid" of the backdoor flush and then puts me all in, the worst hand he really can have is the nut flush - or maybe a king- or queen-high flush. And, of course, he could have a full house in numerous ways. With the worst-possible full house, I'm a significant dog. Getting 4-to-1, I'm not going to worry too much about it, and if my call was wrong, I don't think it was too bad. But this example just shows the giveaway power of the speech. If he had just quietly raised all in, I would have called and expected to win. Since the speech came first, though, I was expecting to lose when I called.

As a footnote, the speech becomes more reliable the later in the hand you get. If your opponent hems and haws preflop, and then says, "I guess I'm ready to go home now," as he pushes all in, that's not necessarily pocket aces. It could still easily be, but sometimes your opponent legitimately is on the fence about what to do, and just says, "What the heck," and pushes. But on the river, no one hems and haws legitimately and then pushes all in. If you hear the speech and then your opponent moves in, he was putting you on.

Final Thoughts
I see giveaways frequently when I play. Sometimes all they do is confirm what I was already planning to do, but occasionally they can really change dramatically the way I play a hand. In particular, hearing the speech on the river has helped me fold straights and flushes that I never would have folded otherwise. Learning to use giveaways is a fun and lucrative skill to add to your playing arsenal.

Ed is a featured coach at StoxPoker.com. Also check out his online poker advice column, NotedPokerAuthority.com. He has authored four books on poker, most recently Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume 1.