1/2 live hand - curious about a read/tell

[bigscore]

I wonder about this same stuff. I have only played maybe 4 times and before I play more I'd like to get better at these kinds of things. I'd have to say it has to be mostly feel

[radii]

By the way, I do think I made two major mistakes here(at least).

First, if I wanted to use that read to play my TPGK strong into a raiser, I could have done so much more cheaply by just betting out. I assume that I really should have just led out.

Second, another huge mistake most 1/2 players seem to make is in bet sizing. Most of the players who are bad enough to totally give away their hands have no concept of bet sizing. They aren't going to bet $40 into a $60 pot. They're going to bet $15 or $25 or something ridiculously small. I feel like his bet of $40 should have changed things in my mind and made me question things a lot more than it did.

But maybe I'm just being results oriented there, I dunno.

[Taso]

I think the big mistake is to assume all tells are the same for everyone. Each tell can be applied differently to each person. Personally, I wouldn't suggest playing a 400 pot based on a tell of a player who's tendancies you don't know. It's really key to be paying attention to them the whole time, and hope they show down a few hands.

Also consider that better players will give off false tells, which is what he was doing, so it really is important to know your player. In this case I might have let this pot go, and hope you get to see his hand. I don't know - the truth is, next time you face off, you'll have a better idea of what he is doing; recall is key.

[SDone]

I'm used to people trying to hollywood live, and a lot of times I just revert to online "tells", namely bet sizing and assigning them a range. Some people do really wear their heart on their sleeve though.

[Dynasty]

I wouldn't have put him on AA. I might have put him on JJ.

The acting weak followed by the all-in is usually a much bigger hand than this guy had.


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I told him that I had used that read 10 or 15 times to steal pots during the week and had not once been wrong... until now. How reliable is this read...

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Well, it's not >90% reliable.

[Rottersod]

I'm also curious about your thinking that the 4.4:1 to call was even the right price. You said you knew he had you beat already so he either had a AJd, a set, QQ, KK, or AA. The only hands you were getting the right price on was QQ and AA. People seem to forget that pot odds need to be looked at from both sides - what price you are getting and how far behind you think you are.

Experience will be the biggest factor in determining when you can use tells like weak = strong. It just takes many, many live sessions to get into the feel of things. One thing you could learn quickly though is that in a typical live 1/2 game TPTK is hand that will hurt you a lot.

[jjshabado]

[ QUOTE ]
Second, another huge mistake most 1/2 players seem to make is in bet sizing. Most of the players who are bad enough to totally give away their hands have no concept of bet sizing. They aren't going to bet $40 into a $60 pot. They're going to bet $15 or $25 or something ridiculously small. I feel like his bet of $40 should have changed things in my mind and made me question things a lot more than it did.


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This is true, lots of players have [censored]-horrible bet sizing. But you can also take advantage of it by betting small amounts as bluffs against some of these guys. There are lots of people that see $20 bets as $20 and don't consider the size of the pot. So if you're going to bluff you might as well do it cheaply.

Often these bad players will either fold to both a $20 or $60 bet or call both a $20 and $60 bet depending solely on their cards. Nice and exploitable.