Cash game player playing in APPT friday, 1st live tourney...help plz.

[DanielDayLewis]

I can beat Mid and some $10/20-$25/50 games pretty well but I have never played a live tourney. I'm in asia anyway so I thought it would be fun to play the APPT Macau in two days.

I've been to a live casino like 5 times in my life and played $600NL. Any tips would be apprieciated (on general live tournament poker/not giving away physical tells etc etc..

I've always been pretty animated at the live table and $600NL players can never pick up any tells I'd assume some of these players will be a lot better and will probably just keep my hands still and mouth shut. Any tips on figuring out whos who early on (besides obv betting patterns and stuff I can do online).

Thanks.

PS I understand you can probably write a few books about these questions but if you can contribute anything I'd apprieciate it.

[JammyDodga]

Don't say very much, make sure you are doing your "trying not to give away tells" on every hand, not just bluffs and monsters, otherwise you'll be giving a tell by not giving a tell...

Also, verbalise every action before putting chips in the middle, there's a whole bunch of rules depending on how many chips you put in, string betting etc that can be a real pain.

[LuckyLloyd]

I'm a live player and I would contend that live tells are overrated. However, you can minimise the tells you give off by:

- Picking a spot on the table and focusing on it every time you take an action and are being sweated by an opponent;
- Not attempting to riffle chips when playing a pot;
- Choosing to either keep your hands over your cards at all times you are in a pot; or keeping them outstretched on the table on either side of your stack;
- Working out in your head what your bet is going to be or making certain that you are just calling an opponent's raise or bet BEFORE you reach for chips;
- Never counting your own stack when requested - just push it out infront if asked the question and let the dealer do it for you;
- Shut the [censored] up and don't respond to any questions ever;

You can maximise what tells or information you obtain by:

- Wearing headphones and ipod and keeping it OFF or the volume down;
- Listening to table chat after hands, during hands, before the game starts, at a break. Listening to someone justify their play or talk about poker in general can give a solid indication of abillity level;
- Observing where people place their hands and what they do with their chips during a pot and how that relates to the hand they end up showing down;
- Pay attention to how well other people are paying attention. Live poker can be boring and roughly half of most tables in most tournaments will switch off when not involved in a hand themselves; a big pot not being played out. Such people are often playing their own cards and not much else probably;


Remember though that "tells" only tell you whether someone like their hand or not. And bad players will like their hands in spots they shouldn't; and be nervous about their hands in spots they should be throttling the chips over the line with a fistpump.