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The advantages of wearing dark glasses and using tells in poker!

I was the second chip leader after day one in my batch in the main event of WSOP  2005. The end of day one was  approaching fast and I had done really well so far and sitting good with a substantial chip lead. I was bullying the table around with my chip stack and everyone kept folding as they all wanted to survive the day one and not mess with the chip leader. So I looked down to see A 10  under the gun and raised. Now the second chip stack, who was also the button thought for a while and re raised. I thought that this guy might have enough of me and was up for a rebellion and not let me bully the table anymore as he was the second chip leader at the table.  So I will just call him a "rebel" henceforth...and thought, what the heck..... I might flop something good and might take all his chips, so I called.

The flop came a very lousy K 7 2, and in order to continue with my bully style and buy that pot I threw in a pot size bet thinking that the rebel would fold. But instead he  re-raised me three times my original bet! But the way he put his bet in and by his body language, I sensed some weakness and thought that he was just doing that to deter me from bullying around anymore, So....... with my huge ego.... I re-raised the pot size and to my disbelief, The rebel re-raised the whole pot. And I was damn! What the heck I just do and was crying within myself as I had already blown away a substantial amount of my chips on a stone cold bluff.

So sulking and crying within, I thought that I would do some Hollywood on him and eventually throw my cards away to save face. So I asked confidently..... "How much you got left sir?" and he counted down his chips to tell me how much he was left with which was easily covered by me. So I started pretending and counting my own stack to imply how much I would be left with If I made that call. I was wearing my dark poker glasses and my red baseball hat and counting down my chips confidently making enough waves that I was very serious about making a call.  I was taking all my time and almost 4 minutes had passed and all that time when I was pretending to be counting my chips, actually from the corner of my eyes behind my dark glasses I was looking at the "rebel" just to see how he reacts. At first he seemed very confident, but as time passed and I kept counting my chips......  AND I SAW IT....... He kept looking at me and his eyes were blinking with sheer nervousness. And I thought... WOW! look at that....... he is freaking so nervous....but I dont have anything and I would be really crippled if I did go ALL IN and  he decides to call. But I was so confident that he was extremely nervous and something was bugging him......I thought of taking my chances! and I declared.... " I am  all in".

The rebel was so disgusted and threw his card away face up! Q Q  . I took a big breath of great relief and  was so thrilled with my daring play based on the body language and tells. OK.....things to be learned from this play..... you wear glasses not only to hide your eyes....but not to let other people know what you are looking at all the time. The second thing....if you are playing for big money......the more time you take in making a call at troubled situations, the more tells you can get out of your opponents.  The last and the most important, if you are looking for a genuine tell, dont look at your opponent and letting him know that you are looking for tells,   as the top pros can easily disguise their tells which can be very deceptive. Be your normal self, dont even look at them.....do what you are doing with confidence, take time.....and from the corner of your eyes without letting them know, keep looking for tells!!!

I live in Las Vegas and available for one on one coaching on winning tournament poker . If you follow my guidelines on how to play poker, I personally assure and guarantee you that you will start making money playing poker. Please email me at "spidermanav@gmail.com" to find out more about what I have to offer.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and learned something new today. I wish you all the best with your poker dreams!

I had entered the $2000 NHL Tourney at WSOP in 2007. With about 90 players remaining, Phil Hellmuth was moved to my table and as usual, like a top shot he shook hands with everybody before sitting at the table. I was a huge chip leader at my table and as I looked down at my hole cards to see AJ, and made a standard size raise. Everyone folded, and it came down to Phil in the big blind who after a little bit of thought re raised me and said “This is not a trick, I have a strong hand". I figured for a while and thought that why would he say something like that if he really had a very strong hand like aces or the kings? So I decided just to call at take a look at the flop. The flop came 432 and Hellmuth fired at the pot with a decent size bet, and I sensed some weakness and thought an ultra aggressive play might make Phil fold his hand as I easily had him covered, so I went all in on top of him.

Phil got into a think tank and started contemplating and trying to get a read on me and I was just my normal and relaxed style. He got into an argument with another player at the table when he called clock on Phil. Anyways, he kept thinking and thinking and I just got a little bit concerned. The trick is the more time you take in making a decision on your hand, the more tells you can get out of an opponent. He kept looking at me and just when I was about to ask " What do you have that its taking you so long?", he might have picked up on an expression on me and he said " I call". I knew I was in big trouble and I had just given out a tell. I said "nice call" as he bragged and boasted about his reading abilities. He turned over his had to show 99, I still had a lot of outs as I had two over cards and a straight draw based on which I had made my aggressive play. And yes, the turn brought me a dream 5 and now Phil was drawing dead. He fell down on the floor and his tall body was rolling on the carpet and he was like crying....oh no! oh no! ( This is not an exaggeration, but he was laying flat on the ground and crying.... I could not believe that). He started cussing me out and started calling me an idiot and making a whole big scene. I told him, hey....... "I was the one who went all in and made a move.....you are the one who called!"

I called the floor and complained how can they just allow him calling me names and create a scene like that. Ok, now everyone must be thinking that he made a correct call.....that is true, but the thing was if he had just gone all in after the flop, he would not have initiated a move like that from me and put his tournament life at risk. Tournament is just not about taking the right decision, you also have to calculate the luck factor as it is very easy to get drawn out, so a world class player knows how to avoid confrontations and keep the luck factor at its minimum. He decided to put all his money without knowing me with two 9s and he was easily drawn out.

Anyways, he came back later and apologized to me for his misconduct and I did accept his apology. I finished the tournament in 10th place and my natural aggression was the culprit as I had lead the entire tournament for the most of the time. With 10 players remaining, I had AQ suited in my big blind and the button, who was raising almost every other hand raised. I gave him no credit for a big hand because of his raising trend and decided to go all in with my AQ. He called and showed pocket queens and I got no help from the board and I was crippled. A few hands later I decided to go all in with my A2 on the button when everyone folded to me and got called by 22 in the small blind which held up and suddenly I was out of the tournament. I later found out that I was also the TV bubble. I always face criticism for my AQ play saying that I was playing for big money first place and I should have been more prudent with my approach. I had outlasted over 2000 players and it was due to my aggressive style of play and it did not work out for me at the very end.

I hope you have enjoyed the sharing of my thought process during the hands and get an insight of my point of view. Good luck with your poker adventures! below is the press version of the incident

Phil Hellmuth Busted

The second day of the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event has just got underway. The pot was opened with a raise to $10,000 by Partho ''Spiderman'' Data. Phil Hellmuth made it $25,000 to go from the small blind, and Spiderman made the call.

The flop hit...

Phil was first to act, and said to the player,''I got to tell you buddy, I think you flopped a set.''

Phil then bet out $15,000 to see where he was at. Perhaps it was the set talk, but Spiderman pushed all-in, putting Phil to a huge test. Phil thought for several minutes, saying, ''You didn't go crazy with Sevens or Eights here did you??''

A few minutes later a player called for a clock on Phil. Phil erupted, ''I haven't played an all-in pot in this tournament, nor have I taken a long time to act once! You're out of line calling the clock on me!''

Another player backed up Phil, explaining to the floorman that Phil hadn't taken long at all. The floorman denied to start the clock, and Phil was given as long as he needed. The player was livid, ''Oh he gets more time because of his name??''

The floorman responded, ''No, he gets more time, because this is a really big decision.''

Phil then went off on the player, ''How long have I taken?!?!''

''About two minutes,'' the player responded.

''Two minutes, a player that hasn't needed a clock before, and is making a decision for his tournament life should be given three and a half minutes!'' said Phil.

Phil asked the player to stop speaking several times, so he could get back to thinking. The player obliged, and Phil eventually made the call.

Phil showed...

Spiderman...

Phil said, ''You put in $90,000 on a stone cold bluff!?''

Before Phil had even finished saying that the turn fell...

Phil stood up fast flinging his chair onto the floor. Screaming,''WHY ME!? WHY ME?!??''

Spiderman ran around the room gloating,''I GOT HIM!!! I GOT HIM!!!''