At long last...back from hiatus and punking all over again. Finally, I expound on the mysteries of the WeatherMap...

Wait...do punks show cards? The Poker Punk debunks more myths in this recycled Turkey Day special...

Yeah, and the popular poker pundits are selling you a lot of dreck about pocket pairs...

Ahhh, killing the sacred cow of absolute position...listen and win...

Ooooo, now the Punk takes on the myth of super-aggressive tournament play in his quest to Punk Opponents Worldwide.

Should you ever show your cards? The popular poker pundits say "no" -- you're giving your opponents "free" information. I say, with great certainty: "maybe?" First, to show cards at all, we must repress the strong human desire to humiliate our opponents or demonstrate what fine poker players we are. Even worse, instinct tells us that we want to "put a stop" to observed tendencies in our opponents. Our instincts tell us to stop bluffers from bluffing, slow down aggressive players or loosen up tight players. However, this is exactly wrong. If you have properly characterized your opponent, you actually want to reinforce his tendencies, rather than discourage them. Why? Because you know how to play against an opponent you can characterize. And, you don't know how to play against an opponent whose tendencies you have attempted to change. For example, if you show a bluffer cards that will encourage his bluffing in the future, you can play him with confidence in the future knowing that he will bluff. If you show him cards that discourage bluffing in the future, he may or may not persist in bluffing -- and, you have lost the ability to "play" him with confidence as a bluffer. So my strong "maybe" is that you should show your cards if and only if it will give your opponent reinforcement of his observed tendencies (which you will have the opportunity to exploit later). Remember, sometimes later against a strong player can be a matter of days or even weeks. Against a weak player you'd best monetize your investment in the same session -- they won't remember your cards after their third beer!

Although a great deal of poker literature is devoted to tells, most of the established tells are not really that reliable until you understand something about your opponent. Frankly, I've always found "using" the established tells against unfamiliar players much more effective than reading them. I'll "protect" my pocket cards or do a "look-off" when I'm pushing a weak hand. These counter-tells work quite well, except against the most seasoned players. Recently, I won a significant tournament at a well-known LA area casino (which was not my "home" casino). The challenge was playing with opponents who knew each other well and about whom I knew absolutely nothing. More importantly, these "regulars" were all well known to the dealers. After the first color-up, it became clear to me that the dealers (however stoic-seeming) themselves gave important "tells" about players they knew well. Although I'm going to compile a more serious list, I noted the following: (i) general dealer disposition (more warmth to rocks than to loose players), (ii) anticipation of action (tendency to quote the amount to raise ahead of weak players in the blinds, tendency to anticipate a fold behind strong early raisers, speeding past the BB option with weak players, tendency to become palpably "neutral" during a large bluff), and (iii) side chatter. Also, while my opponents generally maintained their disposition with other opponents, I noted that some regulars opened up with dealers -- usually in the form of a subtle facial expression in the midst of a particularly "clever" play. As a source of information, the dealers would seem to be pretty good -- they watch the same players every day playing numerous hands. And, I certainly am not suggesting you should focus entirely on the dealer to the exclusion of everything else, their reactions just seem to be another decent source of information that has not been generally used. The edges a player can gain are limited and incremental, so I'm always looking for new ways of gathering information. True, true...dealers at higher limit games are more respectful of the regulars, more careful and experienced, but tournaments (even relatively high entry >$500) are used as a testing ground for less experienced dealers..so watch them and win.

Poker Punk -- debunking the snakeoil and mythology of popular poker pundits and sharing the secrets of his statistically-certified winning Texas Hold 'Em strategy.