Common Tells - Chapter III: Postflop Tells Part 2

1) You’re in a pot with Q♣7♣ against another player who has been doing the betting throughout the hand. The flop was K♣10♦6♣ which missed you, but did give you a flush draw so you decide to come along. The turn was the Q♦, and your opponent bets once again. The river comes the 4♠ and your opponent lets out a sigh before checking to you. What do you do?

2) You decided to call a multi-way pot preflop with 8♥7♥ and the flop is pretty scary. The flop came K♣Q♣J♠ giving you no draws or anything. You decide to take a stab at the pot anyway and chase all but one player out. The turn is a 6♥. Your opponent checks and you decide to check behind. The river is a 5♥ and your opponents shoulders slump just a bit as he checks again. What do you do?

3) You’re in a fairly loose game. You and two others see the flop which comes K♠9♠4♠. Once the flop hits the other two players in the hand both check their hole cards. What does this mean?

--------------------------------------

1) Check and don’t expect to take the pot. You opponent is weak, but not weak enough that you’re going to chase him off the pot. If he was really weak, he wouldn’t sigh openly like that, so there’s a chance he is trying to induce a bet out of you so he can check-raise. More likely though is that he has a hand like K♦J♦ where he has a decent hand, but was hoping it would get better with a straight or flush, but missed both his draws. A bet out of you here wouldn’t get a fold. This is one of those scenarios where a bet doesn’t make any sense at all. He isn’t going to fold anything that can beat you, and he isn’t going to call with anything you can beat, so a bet is a no-reward proposition.

2) Take a stab at the pot. Your opponent in this hand obviously missed his draws, probably A♣X♣, or 10♣X♣. A decent bet here is probably going to take this pot down. It would have been more believable if you had bet the turn as well, but with a hand as transparent as his he’s not going to call anyway.

3) This one depends a little bit on the player. If the two players you’re in this hand against are fairly weak, you can bet neither one has a flush already. They would have remembered if they had two spades, so they probably limped with an offsuit hand and were checking to see if they had a spade and how big it was. If one of the two players is a fairly tight player who raised preflop, then there is a chance he has a hand like AK and was checking to see if the ace was a spade. If he checks then you might want to proceed with caution since there is a good chance he has a big spade with a pair already.