Watch the Dealers...

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.