Speech tells and a hand situation
I just got back from playing my third ever live poker game: A 150+10 sat tournament with seats to a 3000 tournament. First off, could I have played the hand where I got eliminated any differently?
Blinds: 300/600
I'm a little bit below average and I've posted small blind, BB has a bit more chips than me. Everyone folds to me and I notice the BB holding his stack ready to be thrown into the pot, I don't believe him and with a 6,8 offsuit, I make a small raise to 1200, actually wanting him to call so I can bluff at him if a nice flop comes. He puts his chips down, then silently calls. Flop comes Q,2,2 with two spades, I don't like the deuces so I check, he checks.
Turn comes Q,2,2,8 with three spades, giving me the second pair, again I'm not going to throw my chips into him if he's holding a set so I check, even though I'm actually quite confident that my hand is good. Now he overbets the pot, throwing in 4000 and I have a choice to make, after a minute or so, I move all in, adding my last 1000 or so making it 5500, he calls and flips over two red cards, j,9. Sadly for me, the river comes a 9 and he takes down the pot but I still think I played it quite ok. Being a fairly short stack I didn't want to bet into him on the flop and after the turn I was actually hoping for him to overbet the pot, had the bet been smaller I would have folded without much thought. I could have put my money in when the 8 hit but I wasn't sure if he was slowplaying a 2 and I thought his bet would give that away. Did I play this hand ok?
Also, for the first 4 hours the guy who had position on me was a pretty experienced player with a big mouth, he talked as much as he could trying to tilt the whole table and tried picking on me knowing that I was new.
Although his attempts to move people out of their comfort zones didn't affect me much I let him read me like an open book for the first 3 hours before the dinner break. During the break another player told me that he kept trying to make me talk to him during hands, because I was giving a lot away with the tone of my voice. After the break I mostly kept my mouth shut during hands and it worked out ok for me but I would like to know how he kept getting tells from my words and the tone of my voice. What are some speech tells I can look for in other players, and possibly fake myself that could give me a slight edge during hands?
Blinds: 300/600
I'm a little bit below average and I've posted small blind, BB has a bit more chips than me. Everyone folds to me and I notice the BB holding his stack ready to be thrown into the pot, I don't believe him and with a 6,8 offsuit, I make a small raise to 1200, actually wanting him to call so I can bluff at him if a nice flop comes. He puts his chips down, then silently calls. Flop comes Q,2,2 with two spades, I don't like the deuces so I check, he checks.
Turn comes Q,2,2,8 with three spades, giving me the second pair, again I'm not going to throw my chips into him if he's holding a set so I check, even though I'm actually quite confident that my hand is good. Now he overbets the pot, throwing in 4000 and I have a choice to make, after a minute or so, I move all in, adding my last 1000 or so making it 5500, he calls and flips over two red cards, j,9. Sadly for me, the river comes a 9 and he takes down the pot but I still think I played it quite ok. Being a fairly short stack I didn't want to bet into him on the flop and after the turn I was actually hoping for him to overbet the pot, had the bet been smaller I would have folded without much thought. I could have put my money in when the 8 hit but I wasn't sure if he was slowplaying a 2 and I thought his bet would give that away. Did I play this hand ok?
Also, for the first 4 hours the guy who had position on me was a pretty experienced player with a big mouth, he talked as much as he could trying to tilt the whole table and tried picking on me knowing that I was new.
Although his attempts to move people out of their comfort zones didn't affect me much I let him read me like an open book for the first 3 hours before the dinner break. During the break another player told me that he kept trying to make me talk to him during hands, because I was giving a lot away with the tone of my voice. After the break I mostly kept my mouth shut during hands and it worked out ok for me but I would like to know how he kept getting tells from my words and the tone of my voice. What are some speech tells I can look for in other players, and possibly fake myself that could give me a slight edge during hands?
Comments
A paired board is easier to bluff at because if he doesn't have a Q or 2 he will most likely concede.
Consider to some quick points:
1. Your image vs his image. The fact that you came in for a raise is perfect because it disguises your hand, but at the same time you can't then be hesistant on the flop. Worse case scenario is he check-raises you on the flop and then you leave.
2. Your raise to 1200 is a min raise and therefore is not effective. You should have at least made it 1500-1600 (maybe even 3x). For pot control I usually like to make it about 1500 in these situations. It allows me fold equity. (although if your opponents pick up on this you may get pushed back a bit...but for the most part its very rare in a live tourney due to people not effectively counting stack sizes at the table)
3. Need more information on your stack size vs. his stack size. You say below avg. What was the avg. That will help out with a better analysis.
4. Don't be intimidated by people who talk a table, most times they like to talk because they want to show their "knowledge" most times its jibberish and they actually will get scared when you play back at them. Case in point if he knows what you have and he is trying to scare you, if you fire out at a pot he is most likely to think you have hit the board because you are new and you know he knows you think of him as a good player