Maggie's Farm

Every poker player learns how to pick off tells.

Here's a reliable one.

A player with a made hand (big pair, trips, flush) will be able to talk normally if you talk to her during a hand. One still waiting for a flush or straight to fill will find it difficult to hold a stress-free, normal sounding conversation.

This is the best bluff story I've heard. I don't know if its true because it seems to violate a rule, but this is how I heard it from a witness. I've also heard it told around Vegas cardrooms.

This was during a tournament game in Vegas, I think it was at Treasure Island. There's a well-known rule "protect your cards", which means, don't let them fall to the floor, don't let anyone see them, don't let the dealer pick them up by mistake.

The guy is to the right of the dealer (10 seat) in a 10 hand hold'em game. Preflop, flop, turn, heavy betting. Only the guy and someone in the 3 seat (as far from the 10 seat as you can get) are left.

The problem is, when the turn bets were made, the dealer picked up 10 seat's cards with the player immediately noticing. The 10 seat still had a live hand. He technically can't win a hand without cards and cards he does not have.

3 seat checks. 10 seat, who has kept his hands folded in front of him, hiding the fact that he has no cards, notices that 3 seat isn't really paying attention, announces "all in". In Vegas when you make an all in bet, you don't push the chips into the pot. So 3 seat's just sitting there, ice water running through his veins, hands folded in front of his non-existent cards, waiting for 10 to decide what to do.

10 wins if he notices 3's got no cards. But he's not paying attention, and after a half minute of deliberation, mucks he cards and folds.

Pot is pushed to 3 seat.

That's how I heard it.

That kind of fatigue is called "chair glue."

Also, your example is another "protect your cards" situation. In a public card room, if the losing hand kept his cards after the winning hand inadvertently mucked them (tossed them away), the pot is pushed to the outranked hand if the player is still holding cards (if the player is an angle shooter and stands on the rule).

In the tournament situation, everyone "sees" what they expect to be there and no one is paying attention. No. 10 has probably got his arms on the table "hiding" his cards, which you'd do if you were peaking at them. There's multiple stacks of chips around or at his side. When he announced "all in" that's a verbally binding commitment and the chips aren't pushed into the pot because the opponent might fold. If she calls, then they cards are turned up and the dealer will make the appropriate chip transfer. But here, No. 3 literally tossed the cards into the pot, or the dead cards, and the pot was pushed. Both of these actions have formal consequences. Its entirely possible not even the dealer knew what was going on until afterwards.

But, like I said, I wasn't there, but that's how I heard it from a witness (who was the dealer at the ring game I was playing at the time). It is or was a well known story at the time.