So, I just finished reading Caro's Tells book, and have a few questions you guys may be able to answer...

I've played in Vegas, AC, and Costa Rica... But, unfortunately, don't get out to these places NEARLY as much as I would like to... So, the VAST amount of my experience is from home games, some friendly and some not so much... Some where it's like a bunch of guys hanging out, and some where it's a bunch of strangers and I usually bring my walkman cause it's SOOOOOOOO GD boring...

My question deals with his weak=strong and strong=weak tells, which I think are some of his most applicable tells in my games (I've been looking at these guys so much trying to pick up that freakin looking at their chips thing that they're probably waiting for me to ask them to dinner )...

Now, I DO believe that there are times that these tells are easily seen... I get the staredown, or the looking at their shoes thing pretty often... The chip tossing as opposed to sliding...

BUT... I see another principle (not sure if it's exactly a "principle", but I'm tryin to sound smart ) almost as often... It doesn't happen as often in Vegas style, big casino games... But, almost ALWAYS at the private games... For the sake of me not being too good with words, I'll call it the "Big Balls Effect"...

Basically, the main tenets of this effect come into play with horrible to weak/average players... The kind of guys that play with their emotions more than their head... Which is to say, most of them... I see this a LOT when someone "has it in for someone else", like Aisthesis posted in one of his NL sections... Like, if someone takes his stack, sucking out or not... But, I've also seen it happen with stuff as simple as being re-raised... They get that "well fuck you very much" look in their eyes...

Anyways, because of this predisposition, I tend to see a deterioration of the strong=weak tells, and these people will generally slam huge stacks, sometimes even followed up by a few words (ie... check-raise that)... They show all the signs of strength that Caro preaches, but woe to the guy who calls it... They often have a VERY strong hand...

I guess my questions are: 1. Does anyone else notice this trend?... 2. Do you guys have any strategy for playing these people who aren't exactly tilting, but are DEFINITELY not seeming to be in their right mind... 3. Do they show other tells when they obviously aren't acting...

Yo MVP-

Well, I have to tell you that that particular tell 'weak when strong, etc.' has become so well known that very VERY often, people use it as a reverse tell, i.e. doing dumb shit like throwing thier stack in saying 'go ahead, i dare you to call' when they have the stone colds, and stuff like that. You can thank fucking Rounders for that, as well as people doing the annoying KGB accent at the tables. I have seen this alot in homegames, especially when people are drinking, as well as in the B&M game that i play in.

The fact that this is the case totally sucks for people that like to try and pickup tells, but what i have noticed is that generally, a person will EITHER be the reverse type OR the 'normal' type, and once you have figured out which kind they are, you can start using the tell to your advantage.

If someones a savvy player, and they mx up thier tells and just generally act unpredictably, i ignore thier tells completely because trying to analyze the tells of a tricky player is just too goddam confusing.

Caro's book also goes into the difference between, actors and non-actors at the table, the difference is very important when it comes to this strong is weak, weak is strong tell. I like to mix it up to try to hide my tells, I have always loved to slow play, so when I play with people for a while and they have seen me slow play monsters, its time to play aggressive with the next monster hand, most of the time they wont know whay hit them.

I need some live experience damnit

Kind of funny how different our games our in that regard huh Kenny. I have been playing so much live poker, I feel almost lost when I play online. I feel like I am missing massive amounts of info. Something about looking at faces it makes it really easy to see how someone plays after watching them play 10 hands.