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See What they See

It’s Thursday night at low-class, high-action card-room. There is a loose aggressive player running over the table pretty well. A woman in her thirties comes out firing all-in on the turn into him.

She looks like she’s bluffing. She’s holding very still, not making eye contact, moderating her breathing, everything Caro told you about.

It’s also a perfect time to make a bluff. He’s unlikely to have much. The bet is the perfect size. And the turn brought a lot of hands that should could plausibly represent.

I think she has it. I don’t think that she is good enough to recognize such a great bluffing opportunity. And I can’t imagine her calling the flop just to bluff on the turn. I don’t think that’s part of her game.

The laggy player studies her, asks her a few questions, and finally calls her even though he can only beat a bluff, and he wins.

Less than an hour later, I’m firing a second or third barrel all-in to the laggy player. I know he has very little. He starts to study me, and ask me questions. So I do the exact same thing the bluffer was doing earlier.

I know what tells he looks for, so I showed them to him.

After a moment, he calls. I won a nice sized bet not because I watched and made note of his tells, but because I watched and made note of the tells he recognized and acted on when he saw them in others.

It’s information warfare out there. Gather all the ammo you can.