Big Idea: Weakness While Waiting for You to Act
This part of the book focuses on behaviors players show while they’re waiting for someone else to act that tend to signal a weak or marginal hand. Elwood goes through several common patterns and explains how to interpret and use them, especially in multi-way pots and against weaker opponents.
1. Looking Directly at You
When it’s your turn and someone is waiting for your action, many players:
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Look at you more when they’re weak
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Look at you less or avoid you when they’re strong
Why more eye contact often means weakness
Elwood gives a few psychological reasons this happens:
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Threat monitoring: Like an animal watching a predator, a player with a weak hand may keep a close eye on you, worried you’ll bet.
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Defensive stance: The look can carry a “don’t mess with me” subtext, often paired with tense posture or tone.
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Searching for information: With a weak or uncertain hand, players feel the need to study you more, hoping to decide whether they can get away with calling or bluffing.
This can be partly or entirely unconscious — not a deliberate act.
Multi-way pots
This tell becomes powerful in multi-way situations:
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If you pause before acting and several players are watching you closely, that’s often a sign of general weakness, making aggressive raises more attractive.
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If one player pointedly avoids looking at you, that player is more likely to be strong and less afraid of your action.
Elwood stresses correlation: ideally you’ve seen this pattern from that player before. But in weak games, this tell is so common that he often uses it even without a long history, especially pre-flop when deciding whether to attack a pot.
Some players consciously look at you every time regardless of hand. With them, the quality of their gaze (relaxed vs. tense) can still give away information.
2. Grabbing Chips Defensively
Another frequent weak-hand tell is acting as if they’re ready to call you before you’ve bet:
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Obvious version: literally holding chips out in front, “ready to call.”
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Subtle version: hand hovering over chips, idly counting or stacking them in a way that suggests preparedness.
Elwood’s interpretation:
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With a strong hand, there’s no logical reason to warn you you’re about to be called; that kind of display mostly serves to discourage you from betting.
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It’s usually a defensive reflex: the player is uncomfortable and trying to scare you out of betting.
Key practical points:
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Sometimes these players will fold to a bet, sometimes call — you need to track which way a specific opponent leans.
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Limit players are more likely to show this and still call.
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No-limit players who show this are more likely to fold if you bet.
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Most importantly: they almost never raise when doing this. That means:
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You can value-bet thinner, knowing a raise is very unlikely.
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You can bet more confidently when you see this “ready to call” posture.
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There’s also an occasional post-bet version, where someone bets a vulnerable hand then subtly holds chips as if they’re not afraid of more action—usually another sign of disguised weakness.
Elwood also warns to distinguish this from genuine pre-loading (stacking chips before acting when planning a normal call/raise), which is more common in small, multi-way pots.
3. Indicating a Fold
Especially in small pots and multi-way situations, many mediocre players casually telegraph that they’re about to fold:
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Holding cards out away from their body as if about to muck
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Handling cards carelessly when they’re already mentally done with the hand
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Body language that clearly says “I’m out” before it’s their turn
Pre-flop, this is particularly valuable because:
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There are many players left to act.
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The “cost” of revealing a fold is low, so people are sloppy.
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By watching players behind you, you can open or raise wider when you see clear signs they’re not continuing.
Some specific patterns Elwood mentions:
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Cards sitting far out from the body = usually weak, unprotected hand.
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Card protectors used only when interested in playing.
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Some players signal medium interest (card protector, chips in hand) with marginal hands, but never with monsters because they don’t want to alert anyone.
On later streets in multi-way pots, players who have completely missed often don’t care about hiding their fold intentions — they’re disappointed and just want out. If you see the player behind you clearly giving up, you can call or raise more aggressively knowing you’re effectively heads-up.
Elwood notes that using “I’m folding” behavior as a fake tell is very rare in ordinary games. Most of the time it’s honest, lazy signaling from bored or frustrated players.
4. Staring at Bad Board Cards
Some players have a simple board-related pattern:
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When the new board card helps them a lot, they look away quickly and may only glance back later.
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When the new card does nothing for them, they tend to stare at the board longer.
The “stare” often just reflects the default habit of watching the new cards — they only break that pattern when suddenly rewarded with a strong hand and instinctively don’t want to attract attention.
A common variation is a puzzled or calculating facial expression while staring at the board, which usually still means they didn’t smash it.
This tell is:
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Very strong against beginners and weak players.
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Much less useful against experienced players who deliberately keep their board-gazing consistent.
5. Staring at Weak Hole Cards
A closely related pattern shows up when players first look at their hole cards:
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Longer look = usually weak or marginal hand
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Quick glance then immediate put-down = often stronger hand, though this is less reliable than the “long look = weak” side.
Elwood estimates that in a typical low- to mid-level game, a player who stares at his cards for a couple of seconds is very likely holding something poor.
This is:
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Easy to track using peripheral vision while looking near the center of the table.
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Very useful for deciding when to raise pre-flop more aggressively, especially if you see multiple opponents all staring at their hands for a while.
He points out that this pattern shows up clearly in casual home games like guts or Indian poker, where it’s even more transparent and can be used to “train your eye” for subtler casino situations.
6. Defensive Expressions and Postures
A waiting player with a weak hand may unconsciously adopt a “ready for battle” look:
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Turning toward you, leaning in, squaring shoulders
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Grabbing chips
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Tensing up and looking stern or angry
This is essentially the body-language version of “don’t you dare bet.” It’s often seen in players seated directly next to you, since physical posture is easiest to aim at nearby opponents.
In practice, this usually means:
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They’d prefer you check.
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They may call but are very unlikely to raise.
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You can use this to:
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Fire bluff bets they’ll reluctantly give up to, or
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Go for thin value where you might otherwise check back.
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7. Shuffling Cards
A pre-flop one-handed shuffle of the hole cards against the felt, done after looking at them, is another common “I’m folding soon” nervous habit. It’s usually just idle tension relief.
Players with strong hands are less likely to do anything that could draw even minor attention to themselves, so the shuffle skews strongly toward weak holdings.
8. Fake Smiles
In meaningful pots where a player doesn’t want you to bet, you’re unlikely to see a genuine, relaxed smile. Nervous, forced, or strained smiles often accompany discomfort and weak hands. Elwood ties this back to his broader discussion of real vs. fake smiles earlier in the chapter.
9. Exclamations About the Board
When a dramatic board comes (e.g., very coordinated, paired, or flush-completing), someone in a multi-way pot might blurt out a reaction:
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“Wow,” whistles, laughing comments about the card texture, etc.
In Elwood’s experience, this almost never comes from the player who actually hit the huge hand. People who flop the nuts or very strong hands tend to go silent, not noisy — their instinct is to avoid drawing attention.
This tell:
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Is especially common and reliable at low stakes.
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Shows up mostly in multi-way pots, where people are more relaxed and chatty.
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Is rare as deliberate deception; it’s usually honest surprise or “table talk” from someone who did not crush the flop.
Overall, this section teaches you to treat “waiting-for-action” behavior as a rich source of weakness signals—especially among recreational and mediocre players—and to use those signals to open up your ranges, value bet thinner, and attack pots more confidently when the physical story lines up.