False Poker Tells How To Use and Avoid It
Tells are unintentional actions that players have that tell others something about their hand. A false tell is where you perform an action to make your opponents think something about your hand. This is also known as "Hollywood" because it involves a degree of acting on your part.
When a player in front of you is about to bet and you grab your chips as if to call, you are giving a false tell. They are expecting that you will call and are in fact eager but you may have a marginal hand and want a free card or free showdown.
Another common one is to look at your cards as if to check them when you know exactly what you have. You hit the flush on the flop and decide to look at your cards like a lot of players who are looking to see if they have one of that suit to draw to the flush. Opponents will take note that you are checking for the flush draw and put you on the draw.
Almost all players try to act strong when weak and visa versus. When you play with someone long enough you will get to recognize the "Hollywood" in them and know when they have absolutely nothing or the stone cold nuts. The key is to make them subtle so your opponent just takes notes but it does not look obvious. You might see a player on the turn facing a bet make a big sigh and take their time and then finally say something like "I guess I will call". I would suspect they have a very strong hand.
There is one other strategy and that is to give off a strong false tell when in fact it is not true. With a drawing hand, you might do the sigh and I guess I will call routine and then on the river if you don’t hit and your opponent checks to you because they expect a big hand, this gives you the option to throw in a large bet to steal the pot but beware, your opponent may still have a hand worth calling.
Everyone tries to hide their tells, so when a tell is so obvious to you then there is a good chance it’s a false tell.
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