Using Your Opponents' Words Against Them

People ask me questions about talking tells all the time. "While I was thinking about calling a big bet, my opponent kept saying, 'You should fold.' Should I have believed him or not?"



It's a difficult question to answer, because the meaning varies from player to player. Some players will say, "You should fold," when they want a call. Some will say it when they want a fold. And some will switch it up. I frequently just ignore statements like this one, because the information isn't reliable enough for me to act upon it.



When in doubt, ignore anything that comes out of your opponents' mouths. Don't let it affect your decision-making. If you aren't sure about what something means, yet go ahead and use it to make your decision, you've been manipulated.



I've learned of a few things I can do or say that tend to make average players somewhat more likely to call on the end. When I say one of these things to a player, the last thing I want him to do is to ignore it. I want him to try to use my words against me, because most people do it wrong, and I end up getting more calls.



So, if your opponent says something to you and you're tempted to treat it like a puzzle and try to decode it, stop! You're being manipulated.



But some words, you actually can reliably use against your opponents. Here's an example of one talking tell that I've found to be very reliable.



I'm playing in a great $2-$5 no-limit hold'em game. The game is medium-loose preflop and tight for the big bets, and players aren't using position very well. I was under the gun and made the minimum raise to $10 with the 7 6. (I was varying my play with some other favorable conditions thrown in the mix.) Two players called, and then the big blind called. I had about $500, and everyone had me covered.



The flop came A 9 5, giving me a small flush draw and a gutshot. The big blind checked, and I bet $30 into the $42 pot. Only the big blind called. He exhibited the game's characteristics very strongly; he was very loose preflop, but he'd tend to call the flop only with a decent pair or draw, and he'd play for big money only with a big hand. So, after his call, I thought his most likely hands were an ace, a flush draw, two pair, or a set.



The turn was the 2. He checked, and I bet about $50 into the $102 pot. Since an ace was his most likely hand that I beat, I wanted to bet an amount that I thought he'd call with just an ace. Instead, he check-raised me to $130 total.







I went into the tank. He wasn't the sort to make a check-raise bluff like that with just the K. He had a hand. But I thought it could be a set or two pair, as well as the obvious bigger flush. I thought 4-3 for the gutshot wheel was unlikely, given his flop call. So, I started breaking the action down in my head. What hands could he have? How likely were they? How was he likely to play hands that I beat, such as two pair, from this point forward?



As I was thinking about all of this, my opponent started talking. "What did you do, flop a set of aces? You made that weird preflop raise … you have aces, huh?"



I folded right then. Everything I needed to know was in what he said. Generally speaking, when someone who has made a big bet is waiting for the other player to act, he is thinking one of two things: "Call me please," or, "Please don't call."



Sometimes he will have an in-between hand and not know what he wants. But usually he'll feel fairly strongly one way or the other.



If players start talking about hands you could have, they'll almost never mention a hand that beats them. If they think that you might have a set of aces, and they can't beat it, they'll keep their mouths shut and hope that you decide to fold. If they start talking about your aces, they aren't worried about them. Thus, when he asked if I had aces, I was pretty sure that he could beat a set. Since I didn't think a straight was likely, I thought he almost certainly had a flush.



After I folded, he flashed the Q 4.



It's not something that comes up too often, but it's quite reliable. If your opponent is waiting on you to react to a large bet, and starts mentioning hands that you could have, he likely can beat every hand he mentions. Obviously, there may be exceptions, but I've found this tell to be one of the more reliable ones that I use.



But again, if you don't instantly recognize what your opponent's words mean, ignore them. If you try to decode them at the table, the only person you're liable to outplay is yourself.



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.