Hiding Your Poker Tells

As everybody knows, poker is a combination of skills and strategies, which means when we play poker, we should not only pay much attention to skills but also we should also know psychological factors.
A professional poker player could know what you have in your hand by observing your facial expression, some unconscious movements or whatever. So what we should do is to hide your poker tells as much as possible.
Following video would let you know how to hide your poker tells.

Hooray

"Luck is the residue of design."
-- Branch Rickey

The harder we work, the luckier we get.

Outside poker, good luck is often the result of deliberate planning and hard work. It works this way in poker too, to a large degree. But, luck in poker is somehow also different.

We all appreciate luck in poker, and wish we could bottle it and save it for future days, but in many ways luck is the enemy of a good poker player. First let's look at luck from the perspective of the bad player. At least half the time when a bad player wins a pot, he will have gotten lucky to do it. The bad player comes from behind, sucks out when not getting pot odds, makes miracle perfect-perfect catches, spears a kicker on the river card, fills up bottom two pair against an opponent with top two pair. The bad player has a million ways to get lucky. And, like Branch Rickey said, this is by design. Bad players try to get lucky. So, it's no surprise that bad players are generally luckier than good players.

On the other hand, good players are playing with the best of it. Sure, they still get "lucky" sometimes, like making a flush draw on the river card, but they will have been getting pot odds on that draw and will have built the pot correctly too. Good players habitually do the mathematically correct action in any given situation. It's not "lucky" for AA to beat J9. The good player actually tries to avoid being lucky, except to the extent that it would be lucky if the flop came AJ9.

One way that I often get accused of being "lucky" is when an opponent says: "You are so lucky I threw away my hand." Well, duh, that's why I raised, to get you out. My luck here was again the residue of design. This is the sort of luck that good players manufacture all the time. But it's not at all the same kind of luck that happens to the bad player. The bad poker player makes his own luck happen to him; the good player often makes other players give him good luck.

Alpha→Omega

My online poker experience has a really interesting trajectory. Enjoy!

1, Learn poker rules
So far, I still remember my exclamation the first time when I combined a Full House

2, Practice poker with play money
At that time, I had to restrain myself from the impulsion of throwing all in. My mentor told me seriously that the play money is not for play.

3, Learn basic poker strategy
I finally learned I should better be a tight poker player than a calling station.

4, Play low stakes with real money
$0.02/$0.04 Limit is my sweet home.

5, Join No-Limit Tourney
For me, this would be Final Fantasy & Mission Accomplished (my first thought is Mission Impossible).

6, Try other poker games other than Texas Holdem
Following the same cycle in Omaha, or whatever it is, is essential.

Take Your Position

Manipulating position is a skill that Texas Holdem players need to focus on developing more deeply when moving to other games.

In Texas Holdem poker, the value of position is generally self-evident. You want opponents to make their decisions before you do, and then you want the final say, the last word. On top of that, Holdem is a game where it is common that nobody has much of anything. You are making decisions based on whose "nothing" will outplay the others to win the pot. While superior position doesn't automatically win hands, it does make it more likely you will make better bets—in the same way that a general who positions his troops on terrain he is familiar with will have an edge.

But position in Texas Holdem is simplistic. Last is basically best, particularly when only two players are in a pot. First position, or second position behind a maniac, or position in front of a maniac … sometimes these will offer positional advantages too, but for the most part, just being last to act is such a significant edge that all good players will tend to play more hands when they are in late position and less hands when they are in early position.

But the greatest difference in positional complexity comes in comparing Omaha Hi/Lo to Texas Holdem. Last position continues to have some general advantages, but it comes with disadvantages too. For example, bluffing from last position is suicide against good players. The bluffing arrow is almost removed from your quiver when you are last. In Texas Holdem having middle position seldom offers any advantages but middle position is the prime bluffing position in Omaha.

Monkey Tilt

Poker terms can be very interesting and vivid, like this monkey tilt.

It's an extreme form of tilt, often caused by a series of bad beats, excessive table banter from donkeys, or otherwise pure luck in a poker game. The poker player experiencing monkey tilt may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

1) complete and utter disregard for money (in fact, other players may even claim that the player in question "hates money")

2) frequent bluffs and all-in moves before the flop in a no-limit Texas Hold'em game

3) calling bets with complete disregard for the cards or the odds being offered

4) calling jumping up and down screaming "oooh oooh aah ahh" while shoving a banana down your own throat

Pop Up

You may have never noticed it before, but there are kind of bubble situations involved in major poker events.

Typically, players refer to the cash bubble and the final-table bubble. These are the two most distinct "bubbles" in a tournament. Most players want to cash, especially when getting close to the money. There is also a certain amount of distinction and accomplishment that comes with making a final table, so players often refer to the final-table bubble. The World Poker Tour has a distinct TV bubble, since it shows only the final six players on its broadcast.

The World Series of Poker has another bubble that most players don't recognize. You would sit at a table of unknowns. Probably, you would have an amazing early run, busting out many players, and be claimed as the chip leader after a few hours of play. But keep in mind, your upmost priority there should be "to survive until day two." It's the day-one bubble. The day-one bubble is simply the result of so many players who are playing the main event whose primary goal is to survive day one (note that players typically don't make the money until day three of the main event). It is a unique bubble situation, probably unlike any other tournament, as there is no cash on the line.

Donkey or Novice?

It just happened.

My hole cards are Ah3h. I see the flop with 3 other poker players. The flop comes Ad3c7c. So I flop 2 pairs and I go all in. 2 players fold, the 3rd player calls. He has nothing but Jc7h. He should have folded with hope for 2 running clubs so dim. Then the turn & river are clubs. I lose.

Personally, I think he is a novice, but I don't know he is also a donkey. I wouldn't call him a weak player, but a bad player who makes blatantly bad plays.

In retrospect, I bet he would call himself lucky. And I have no remorse. After all, I was beat by a runner runner—A situation where both the fourth and fifth community cards are needed to make a hand.

Recently I have been playing Speed Holdem. With 30 seconds countdown at every move, it's hard for loose people to play wisely. What happened to me is a rare thing and I was honored to be involved.