Live Tell Question

[bigshowmack]

If you're playing with someone who is generally friendly and talkative at the table and laughing it up and being sociable, and you get involved in a big hand with them in which they bet into you on the flop after your preflop 3bet and commit 2/3rds of their stack and immediately go into the tank Phil Laak style for the first time in 5+ hours (hood up, looking straight down at the table, not saying a word) would you perceive that as strength or weakness?

[PantsOnFire]

As with most tells, you need more than one occurance to get a more accurate idea of what the tell means. The first time a tell occurs, it is very difficult to assess the meaning.

In general, I would say that if this is an average player, it likely means strength. If this is an excellent player, I really would not assign anything to it and play according to other factors.

[dopp16]

I probably percieve him as an as shole.

And probably weakness

[johnnyrocket]

i say weakness, players tend to get real quiet and try to not give nething off when they are weak, u need to see it alot to be sure tho.

[knifeparty]

It all depends on the person, but from what I see from watching televised poker (HSP on GSN for example), I notice that anytime someone like, say Mattusow has a good hand, he immidiately shuts up.

Keeping in mind, this may not mean anything consistently. Let's say you and I are in a pot together and I'm chatting it up. Suddenly the pot gets bigger and I shut up. I just realized, "Ok, there's some money on this table now, what happened?" and I need to run through everything that happened over in my head, obviously requiring silence to accomplish this in order to make an "informed" decision.

[Hammerhead]

Strength
Guys looking away from you are often more scary than the guy leaning back, drinking his soda, staring you down, or anything else. Because they are trying to look normal, by staring you down they are trying to feign strength. But on the other hand, when people are bluffing sometimes they are very quiet and still as they dont want to give away their hand, but I'd say from your situation you described 60/40 strength/weak, I'd look at betting patterns and try to base my decision on more than a look, tells are unreliable, as accomplished players often feign weakness to get calls.

[MRBAA]

I'd also say strength here. In general, looking away, trying not to confront means they would like a call, and don't want to make you feel threatened.

However, this is a good time to ask the player a question, either about the strength of their hand (like "did you flop a set?") or about the sudden big bet ("do you really not believe my raise?). What they say doesn't matter as much as how they say it -- if they answer in a relaxed, coherent manner they are almost certainly strong. If they answer in a nervous way and/or don't make a lot of sense, they may be weak.

[meisce]

Don't read much into this action alone.

I usually do this when the pot gets sizeable. And I make sure I do the same thing with weak and strong hands. I usually sit there counting my breathing, staring at the pot. This is because I'm either playing with strong players, or very weak players that will read whatever they like from anything I advertise anyway. Against someone in between I'll usually mix it up and see how perceptive they are.

I don't wear a hoodie though, since I'm not a complete muppet.

If eliciting a tell is the only way for you to reach a decision, then I find the following works if done effectively.

If I'm facing someone doing this to me, I'll start talking. Not only asking questions, since I usually won't elicit many answers from anyone who knows what they're doing. I'll represent (not state directly!) a certain hand, usually a little weaker or stronger than my own, and see what their reaction is. Once they put me on a hand and realize I'm seriously considering a call with it, there'll usually be some reaction, either relaxed or stunted breathing, drawing into themselves more, etc. This will be subtle but visible.

Nothing is 100%, mind you. If your opponent is good enough, or your representation not good enough, they will out think you. However if this guy is committing 2/3rds of his stack in the way you described you're probably quite safe.

Hope that helps.

[MRBAA]

Another important way to use tells is to combine them with other information -- such as bet size. Here the 2/3 stack bet size suggests he may want a call, he basically is going all in, but doesn't want to scare you by saying so. Combine that with a change in demeanor that also suggests strength and you can probably fold here.