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I bet, and the person who told me I had obvious tells, folded his K 10 on the flop. Normally, he would have raised someone with that hand. This is clearly disastrous towards my game, but when I try to get rid of this tell, my 'acting' is so awkward that again, people can easily tell.

Do you have any suggestions on maintaining a solid composure to not give away my hand every time?

Thanks,

- Peter

Answer: First of all, in poker sometimes your stuck with hands that are so obvious you can't really do much else but win a small pot. An example of that is if you have AA and the flop is AKK and no one has a King. Or if you have a trips on a flop like AA4 or 773. Your example isn't that obvious though and I'm surprised that someone would fold their KT there.

There are two things at work here. The first may be your awkwardness and the second is the texture of the hand in relation with your table image. If you are awkward, you need to pinpoint exactly what you are doing that makes it seem as though you are holding a monster. Is it that you are acting too smoothly and quietly? Is it that you are too anxious?

Try mixing up your betting styles on other hands so that it disguises your good hands a bit more. I intentionally do that in my games so people don't get a read on how I'm acting. My buddy will even actually say things sometimes when he does have good hands to throw people off. For example, he says, "I have the nuts man! Why are you calling me? I have all of this flop! Fold man! You're beat!"

The funny thing is that he actually does have the nuts and it makes them want to call even more. I don't suggest doing that (unless the guy deserves it) but the point is that you need to be consistently inconsistent with the way you bet (not the amount but actually how you put the chips in, your pause, if you say anything and where your eyes are focused). The better the opponent, the more subtle I am with my misinformation and most of the time it works.

The nice aspect of being subtle is that people don't think you are actually trying to confuse them; instead, they think they are discovering something and it makes them more confident. Let me give you an example of a move you can do sometimes if you actually want a call. If someone bets into you, pause for a bit without touching your chips. Then reach down for them and kind of stumble and hesitate. Then go back for your chips and push some in and say "raise" a little more forcefully then normal and stare at them for a couple seconds and then look away from the table completely until they act.

In addition to the awkwardness, there is the table image you have. Obviously, if you haven't been in a hand for 3 hours and you raise, people are going to notice. Look at it this way, if you know someone else never bluffs and they raise you, it must mean something, right? You don't want to give other players that much power over you or they can easily dodge all your hands. This is why deception is essential to playing winning poker.

You need to bluff sometimes, or push hands, in the right spots. A little goes along way and it can be the difference between winning and losing overall. You don't want people always knowing what you have and only calling you when they think they have you beat or will draw and out beat you. I would suggest that one or two times the next session you play to look for another spot like 89T and then bet. If they call you down the whole way, you get exactly what you want: all the action on future hands. If they raise you, you can always pull another dirty trick and "accidentally" expose your cards when you are throwing them in the muck pile.

The key to good poker is thinking one level above everyone else. Even if people think you are an idiot, you can use that to your advantage. What was that show on TV a while ago with the bumbling detective? Colombo, I think. He would be a good poker player because no one would give him any respect.

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