In the last article, I talked about the sorts of tells that mean that your opponent is only acting strong, as well as deftly avoiding putting the image of oral sex and Mike Caro in your head together, which you haven’t thanked me for yet. What’s that? You can’t stop thinking about oral sex and Mike Caro? Well, then you should have shown gratitude when you could, because now you will suffer!
Can you figure it out?
I also promised you that I would tell you about betting movements and what they mean. You can actually get a lot out of how a man moves his stack. Does he move it slowly and rhythmically, or jerk it quickly to the center? Thinly veiled masturbation references aside, you can get some really great information from such a simple motion.
Sign Language
It’s funny and bizarre what kind of messages you can pick up on if you’re aware of how—not how much—but how a person bets. Let’s take a look at some of the bets to look out for.
Caro? Is that what's known as a double fuck off, or is just overconfident?
The Slide
A player who gently and unassuming slides chips into the pot doesn’t make any big dramatic gestures or noises because he desperately wants a call, which you shouldn’t give him without a powerful hand for yourself.
The Stream
A player who dances, drops, and streams their chips into the pot want it to look like a big, intimidating bet, because he’s trying to get you out. Call him or raise him if you don’t have a hand worth calling. This one is especially true for limit games, because the bettor would essentially be aggrandizing the ordinary.
The Gentle Put
As with the slide, this is one of those moves where the bettor is trying to avoid intimidating players by not making any big noises or actions. If not for the pile of chips in front of him, he would have plausible deniability that he even acted. Don’t call him without a respectable hand.
The Fling
This player is just throwing his money away, literally. He wants to appear strong, so you should call if you have any reasonable hand and you should raise before the chips hit the felt if you don’t, because his cards will follow his chips in suit.
Hand Signals
So now that you’re all caught up on what the actual betting motion tells you, stick around to see the Top Almost-Ten Most Artificial Tells, our big list of tells that the bettor hand picked and gift wrapped just to send you a message.
