Poker News

Jim McKenna, PhD.

If you know how to read, you won’t have many surprises. This is true in life as well as at the poker table. I was recently working with a 15-year-old young man and his family. He was getting into trouble daily at home, but not at school. It was obvious that he was setting himself up to be “kicked.” He was genuinely surprised when they got upset with him. The social skills he lacked at home were his not knowing how to read his parents and how to “grease the wheels.” When he would say “No,” he’d be sarcastic or do it in front of his parents’ friends. He was confused because his parent always told him to be honest with them and when he said a truthful, “No,” they would predictably go “on tilt.” What he was not computing was their previous behaviors when they were embarrassed or he was being disrespectful.

While learning the odds of making various hands in poker is an important skill, it is surpassed by the ability to read people. What’s available are past actions (particularly, if they are unconscious) that give you a much more valuable read. What the young man mentioned previously forgot was how intolerable his parents were to being embarrassed. They could stand the refusal. They couldn’t tolerate his disrespect. Once he began to read their need for respect, he learned to grease the wheels, and call them off to the side before saying a respectful “No.”

It’s one thing to know about the various “tells” in a game of poker. It’s quite another, though, to read what those same behaviors mean to different people. Most poker books and articles don’t take into account the various personality types and how the same behavior can often mean something totally different from one person to the next. For example, to place a bet in softly could mean that the person has a strong hand. That is particularly true if the person usually throws his or her bets in. However, it is normal for some players to do this all the time. The same is true of players who normally look at you when they bet. Most players are bluffing, that’s true. However, if the player is action-oriented he or she gets high on challenges and will stare you down with a good hand. Learning to read goes beyond merely observing actions. It’s learning to observe the difference among each person’s action under different circumstances. Telling people apart includes the art of telling “tells” apart. A “tell” about a “tell” is what I call a “Meta-tells.” Going beyond tells and reading how different personality types behave is learning to be a bi-lingual reader.

In my book, Beyond Tells, I refer to 1. The Boss, 2. The System Player, 3. The Loner, 4. The Party Hardy, 5. The High Roller, and 6. The Hunch Player. The same “tell” can be quite different with each of these styles. For example, Mike Caro refers to “Law 7″ as “The friendlier a player is, the more apt he is to be bluffing.” While this is usually an act for the most styles, it is a way of life for The Hunch Player. When this latter player is being friendly they are not bluffing. When they get serious and stopsmiling, Hunch Players are usually on a bluff.

The important skill in reading people is to take their past behaviors, compare them to their present actions and if you find them to be inconsistent, they are speaking with a forked tongue. What the 15-year-old didn’t notice was that his parents were much easier to deal with when they got respect. Yet, at school he didn’t have this problem. He was able to read what would get him good grades at school but not at home. The good news is that everyone can learn to improve their reading skills-at home and at the poker table.

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