Strategy Post - Sort of

So this is going to be a short strategy post. One hand I played recently that a couple people who was watching me play at the time asked how I could possibly make that play at that time. So I'm just going to go through my thought process and reveal a bit about online tells.

I'm going to go through this hand step-by-step, street-by-street. Names are deleted just for privacy purposes.

PokerStars Game #12141526209: Tournament #6-6, $25+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2007/09/19 - 01:25:43 (ET)
Table '61613026 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Villain (2445 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero - ME (3465 in chips)
Seat 6: - (2825 in chips)
Seat 7: - (3295 in chips)
Seat 9: -(1470 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 75
ME: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [8h 6h]
-: folds
-: folds
-: folds
Villain: calls 75
Me: checks

So this is a Turbo Sit-and-Go, blinds goes up every 5 minutes. Hero is sitting in decent shape with a M of 17, and villain is not in bad shape sitting with M of 11.

Folded around to the blinds where hero gets a free look with 6-8 of hearts. A hand that I'm probably behind with, but could make a hand with.

*** FLOP *** [Qd 7h Ad]
Villain: checks
Me: bets 250
Villain: calls 250

So hero leads out for 5/6 of the pot. For anyone familiar with PokerStars, the bet amount scroll bar goes up by multiple of the big blind, going up by 1 big blind each time the bar is clicked (unless the scroll bar is actually scrolled). 250 represents a bet that is entered manually (this is important - will explain why later).

Players usually pair their hole cards 1/3 of the time, so hero took a stab at the pot hoping he can pick up some dead money. Villain calls. So he can either be on a flush draw, or he hit the board. If he hit the board, hero is drawing very thin, even if he is on a flush draw, hero is still drawing thin.

*** TURN *** [Qd 7h Ad] [6c]
Villain: checks
Me: checks

Easy check. Hero makes bottom pair, but with villain's call on the flop, bottom pair might not be good.

*** RIVER *** [Qd 7h Ad 6c] [7c]
Villain: bets 650
Me: calls 650

The board pairs, and flush doesn't come, and villain leads for 3/4 of the pot. Notice how the bet is again not a multiple of a big blind? So that means it was manually entered (DING DING DING). Remember my bet on the flop that was manually entered to try to represent something when I really have nothing, I called his bet based on what I tried to use on him. Trying to make the bet seem strong by entering an abnormal number. In poker, strong means weak, weak means strong. Whenever playing live, if someone looks very strong, the chances are they're weak, where as if they look timid and weak, they might be strong. So with that information available to us, I make the call...and the result is

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain: shows [5d Td] (a pair of Sevens)
Me: shows [8h 6h] (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
Me collected 2100 from pot

And I was correct. Now, there are times when I could look foolish calling here and having villain show a hand that beats me, so don't always a hand the same way and evaluate your opponent the same way. This bettering pattern is similar to a tell Phil Gordon alluded to in his "Little Green Book". Whenever someone makes a bet, if he chooses a small number of large denomination chip, he is attempting to not intimidate his opponent since its only a small number of chip (so he is actually strong since he tries to look weak). Versus another opponent which chooses a large number of small denomination chips, that player is attempting to look strong and intimidating by betting with a large number of chips (strong means weak) when in reality he's bluffing.

Now, that was para-phrased, but its the same idea. Keep in mind though, no matter what type of tells you pick up, there is rarely a tell (if there is one at all) that is universal. Use the various information provided to you and process them altogether and make your decision.