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Returning from a week in Vegas I received a call from my old friend Carl at Gambling online magazine. We had been treated to a week in sin city by Full House Travel, absolutely free. Unfortunately Carl was not able to join us this time, but a number of magazine editors were there along with other writers and friends. Carl called me because he couldn’t believe what people were saying about me, and how a nice guy like me can be so cheeky at the poker tables. I would like to explain at this point that I’m a firm believer that a profitable poker player must have the ability to use every advantage as long as it’s not braking any house rules. My first night at the tables I decided to take advantage of the fact I was a new face in a poker room with 60% local players. To do this correctly you need to first spend some time as a rail bird acting like your real interested but a little scared, because you have only ever seen poker on the telly. I like to talk to some of the local rail birds and say things like ‘oh! Dose a full house beat a straight’? Sign up at the desk but don’t act to relaxed. Instead try to be exited and keep checking the list to see when you will finally be able to play this wonderful game that you have heard so much about. When you take your seat it’s a good idea to act exited and even a little confused. Never place the blind when it’s your turn or you will blow the whole effect. You can even go as far as asking why you are putting chips in the pot before you have any cards. Try to be chatty at the table but don’t overdo it, the last thing you want is to annoy people at the table. You want to be liked but not the centre of attention all the time. Then, when you are week, and you feel you opponent has a medium hand, you want to go quiet and act like you’re really concentrating. Re-raise strong and your most likely get your opponent off the pot. When you’re strong you want to keep chatting and looking around. If your opponent starts to bet into you wait until someone tells you it's your turn, and then check! Your be told there’s a bet and you then rush to get your chips into the pot because your just so embarrassed. I like to do this and then look at my cards, the flop and then my cards again, with a look that says ‘I think I made a mistake’. If you do all of this correctly then there is no reason that you can’t keep up the act for the whole evening. Get excited and call your friends over when you win a big pot. At showdown, ask if you have won or my personal favourite move is to turn over the cards, all confused like, and wait for the dealer to pass me the chips, at which point ill say ‘is this mine? Did I win’? I know it’s not nice but if you think about it, the sharks at my table were so excited when I sat down they thought they were getting a free lunch. They are acting in their own way so what’s the difference? The one guy was telling me to take a seat and not to be scared as they were all pretty new to the game. Yea rite! It had nothing to do with the fact there was three empty seats on the table. I know I’m probably going to receive a ton of emails telling me how unethical and down rite dreadful I am, but the $2,700 I accumulated, sure made me feel better. Andreas Kythreotis 10th July 2009 |
