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EVIDENCE FOR THE DETECTABILITY OF VERY SUBTLE TELLS
Though much of what I have said is conjecture, I do have a bit of evidence that such enhanced tell reading poker hands may be possible. First, I have noticed that my own ability to find tells has improved perceptibly during periods when I have increased my focus on this area of play.
More intriguing is the possible implication of something I saw on television some years ago. The program was one of the genre featuring unexplained phenomena, unsolved mysteries, and other oddities. Though I do not remember the details, featured in this episode was an elderly man from another country. He had an act which people viewed as a demonstration of a sort of psychic phenomenon. He did not, however, claim to posses any psychic abilities. In his act he left the theater, then had someone known to have no connection with him hide a small object, perhaps a coin or a paper clip, with an audience member chosen by the hider. On his return the performer strolled through the audience, holding the arm of the hider.
He observed the poker game audience, looking here and there, stopping momentarily, and then moving on. Finally he stopped and pointed to the person with whom the object had been hidden. He had found the object by some unidentified means. Of course this would be unremarkable were it likely to have been only a magician’s trick. There are undoubtedly was a sophisticated magician could arrange a routine of this sort. What made it remarkable was that it was witnessed and assessed carefully by James Randi, or “The Amazing Randi” is well known as a magician turned preeminent debunker of claims of psychic abilities. Among other accomplishments, he exposed famed “psychic” Uri Geller who, at the time had created a stir with feats like “psychic “ spoon bending. Randi even received a MacArthur foundation grant to continue his debunking work.
In this instance he observed the act in detail, and was, I believe, privy to the performer’s activities before the act, outside the theater, and so on. What was his assessment of this performers act? Not surprisingly he confirmed that it involved no psychic phenomena. Less expected was his assertion that it also was not a trick! Randi stated that the performer had apparently practiced reading people’s subtle bodily cues to such a degree that he had become able to use the cues of the hider and audience members to zero in on the member with the hidden object. If Randi was right, then we have something of interest to poker players. Could it be possible to learn to detect remarkably inconspicuous tells in our opponents? I have little doubt that it is possible to identify tells more effectively than the great majority of poker pros.
But I am less certain that the difference could be enough to make a substantial improvement in hourly rate. Tripling the number of useful tells you identify especially if you are already somewhat skilled in this area may be asking too much. Just what the limits of tell detestability are I do not know. I do know that I have not run across any players who clearly read tells vastly better than most other professional level players. Ultimately a serious player must keep in mind that poker brain is multifaceted game. Few players could not improve significantly in several areas of play. So while there may be untapped potential in tell play, you must consider the equal or greater value of numerous other skills. You will then be in a position to prioritize the areas in which improvement will bring you the greatest profits.
Addendum:
Not long after writing this essay, while reading a book of stories from the like of the late physicist Richard Feynman, I came across a description of what appears to be nearly the same performer’s routine described above. Feynman’s father did some investigating to learn the secret of the act. It turns out that it does involve reading the subtle cues of the hider. The interesting thing is that it apparently does not require much practice to learn how to do this. You just need to know what kind of cues to look for. This is consistent with what I have experienced in reading tells. They can be hard to uncover, but once you spot one it becomes almost obvious, and is easy to see again in the future poker hands
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