FTR AMA: Zach Elwood, author of Reading Poker Tells - Feb 21st 5.30pm ET

[Hippy80]

Are there any spots where having a tell on a certain type of player doesn't really help? I saw something on your twitter about having reads on a Station doesn't really help, could you explain this?

[Zach Elwood]

Are there any spots where having a tell on a certain type of player doesn't really help? I saw something on your twitter about having reads on a Station doesn't really help, could you explain this?

That was mainly applying to the main types of tells, which are the ones differentiating a player's behavior when bluffing from when he's betting a strong hand. I think there are other tells that come into play (for example, defensive chip handling) for passive players. But many players are never going to make significant bluffs; if you know that about them, it doesn't make much sense to be looking for the kinds of bluff vs. value-bet kinds of tells. I think that was the point I was trying to make.

But yeah, against players who play really passively and obviously, tells are not as useful as they could be. Those types of players make their hands pretty face-up anyway. And against players who call too much, even when they shouldn't, even having a reliable tell that the player doesn't like his hand may not mean much, if he's going to call your bluff anyway.

Like everything in poker, it's all about looking for patterns. Tells aren't going to help you out very often - maybe a few times a session. But when you've found people that have reliable tells - those are profitable players to play against.