How do you disguise strength in live play?

Vovk

Vovk

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When I have a great hand live, I'm always afraid that my body language gives it away. Any tips on how to hide my signals when I have the strongest cards in my hands?
 
CRStals

CRStals

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Act the exact same every single time you play a hand. Take the same amount of time before acting; cover your neck if you can to try and hide your pulse in your neck vein (I've heard some use this as a tell), and do your best to replicate that every time you play a hand. The more consistent you are, the harder you are to read.
 
Zennnyy

Zennnyy

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Sometimes you don't even know your own tells at live games, it's recommended to get settled into a local club game once a week, become friends with a few and discuss this stuff. in my experience it the pressure of tough spots becomes the norm, the sweats no longer happen etc because your used to the spots (although you take some time off like a couple of months, these will come back for a small brief time until your comfortable again)

with that being safe, what CRStals said above, play every hand the same, same posture, timing etc will help.
 
dreamer13

dreamer13

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A neutral expression that does not reveal your thoughts and feelings. This can be achieved through practice, self-control and awareness.
 
hardongear

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Everything CRStals said.

Some more advice I'd give for playing live:
Get in the habit of ALWAYS waiting to look at your cards till it's your action preflop. What you should be doing before that is looking at every other player as they look at their cards. If you're checking your cards early you're missing looking and finding the other players tells the instant they look at their cards. And that's the best time in my experience to see a tell. In that second villain is looking at his cards preflop for the first time. The next best time is as the flop hits the table. I'm always looking at the other players NOT the cards when the flop hits. You wanna be looking at the other players for their reaction to the flop. You can look at the flop later. Same rules for every street....look at the other players in the hand for their reaction as the turn/river come out. Look at what the actual turn and river cards are later. You only have an instant to catch their first reaction to the cards as they come out preflop, turn and river. You have all kinds of time to see what the cards are.

Best of luck.

Cheers!!!
 
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