I grew up on a farm in the mid-west and nearly every day someone would remind us that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.  Well, the job of the ante-tale is to lead that horse to water with such wonderful grace that he is ready to beg to drink. 

Let’s get about breaking down the psychology of this.  The very first thing that we have to acknowledge is that we can not make our opponents across the table do anything.  Short of grabbing them by the collar and stuffing a gun in their face like they do in some of the old westerns we can’t make them do it.  On the other hand if they think that we are doing something because we are vulnerable they may very well decide all on their own to make the attack.  Thus, the concept of the ante-tale.  If the tale is unconscious and our opponents can exploit it, then the ante-tale is very conscious and planned and our opponent thinks they can exploit it. 

The first thing to look at is your standardization.  What have you decided to do in a standard way every hand?  Do you have a conscious pattern in the way you handle your cards, your chips and any drinks or refreshments that may be at the table?  There is one thing that I will guarantee to you, if you don’t have a standard conscious pattern then you have an unconscious pattern.  Now, is the time to find out what those patterns are, because many of those at the table are watching those unconscious patterns, and using them to read you. Those patterns are your tales. 

You may not notice that you take a drink or water every time you have a difficult bet to decide on, but you can bet that the others notice.  Instead, decide consciously what you will do and how you will use and hold your body and when in the game you will do that.

For example, if you are normally fairly deliberate about your betting and the time you take to decide on your bets.  Then standardize it.  Create a pattern that you use every time.  The other players will notice that pattern and when you intentionally decide to bet quickly they will find themselves believing that you are in a hurry to take advantage of something.  There you have created a strong ante-tale. 

Think of other common instances that you run across every game.  One good example is how you place the poker chips in the pot.  Some people toss them out. Some people carefully slide them out. There are many ways to do it. But standardize your way of doing it and only go off standard when you want the other players to notice. If the normally carefully player carelessly tosses chips out he may very well be highly confident and ready to get on with it.  While you can’t make the other players at the table do anything specific you can elicit feelings in them.  If they perceive you as highly confident they will be less confident.  If they perceive you as worried or scared then they will become more confident.