Minimizing Poker Tales

In the world of Poker, all beginners and most intermediate and advanced player have tales that affect the results of their game. One of the most important things that a player can do to improve their game is to discover their own tales.  What is a “tale?”  A “tale” is any clue that you give to the other players that can “tell” them what you are thinking, doing or reacting to.  Tales can be visual, something that you see.  Or they can be audible that is something that you hear.  These can be words or sighs or the tapping of a foot.  The third kind of tale is a tactical habit that reveals what you’re planning on doing.  These are often called betting tales. 

What is the most single most important thing that you can do to minimize your own tales?  That answer is very simple.  Get deliberate.  Get very deliberate.  First of all, understand that everything you do reveals something about your thoughts feelings and action.  So, the only real option is to maximize the difficulty of reading your “tales.”

That is where being deliberate comes in.  If you usually toss your chips onto the table, except when you are bluffing and when you are bluffing you gently push a neatly stacked pile out to the middle.  That is a major tale.  The fix for that kind of “tale” is very easy.  Simply decide what you are going to do in this game and do that in every betting situation.  Say you decide that you are going to stack the chip neatly and slide them out to the center each time.  Then you do this in each and every instance. You have eliminated or radically reduced the information that any opponent, be they beginner or expert, can get from that action. 

Interestingly, even this deliberate and pre-programmed action reveals something.  It reveals that you have thought about your game and that you have enough personal will to control your actions.  That tells the expert something but it tells the beginner or the intermediate player much less. 

I would recommend watching every game you can find.  Watch expert games and amateur games and every level in between.  Note the “tales.”  Maybe even start a notebook of different kinds of tales and what happens because of those tales.  When you are not in the mix of the game, you can observe much better. 

There are many common “tales” to look for.  Are they breathing fast?  Or are they breathing slowly and deeply?  Are they drinking?  Do they look tense when they have a weak hand or do they try to become an actor and act very confident to hide the weakness of their hand? Put yourself in their place, what would you do in that situation?  Would you get tense?  Would you eyeball the strongest player at the table?  Would your eyes reveal fear?  What else are they doing in the game you are observing?  Identify with your best guesstimate the strongest player at the table? What is he watching?  Is he deliberate or sloppy?  Could the sloppiness be deliberate?  Why does he win the hands he wins?  Could it be that he is sending out false “tales?”  Switch tactics watch the player that you identify as the weakest.  What are his tales?

You get the idea.  Spend some real time observing and thinking about others tales and use that and self observation to find your own tales.  Then, begin the process of reducing them.  Pick one tale.  Maybe it is the chips “tale,” and use an arbitrary method to choose your method of putting chips into the pot. 

If you spend some serious time on minimizing your “tales” you will improve your game significantly.  Good luck!