1. What this chapter is about
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How to manipulate opponents’ decisions with behavior and talk.
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How to deceive them about your hand’s strength.
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Why many of these moves are:
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Marginal in value,
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Sometimes ethically gray / “angle-shooty,”
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And best used rarely, if at all.
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Even if you never use them, you should know them so you can spot them when others do.
2. Influencing play in multi-way pots
You can sometimes telegraph your future action in multi-way pots to affect what others do:
Examples:
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You want a player to fold so you can call or raise.
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River, 3-way, you’re last to act. First player bets, second player acts before you and seems stronger than you.
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You start quietly preparing chips to call/raise, encouraging the middle player to fold, so you can take on the bettor alone.
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You want a player to call so you can see a showdown.
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River, 3-way, first player bets, you already know you’re folding.
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You clearly get ready to fold, signaling to the middle player that he’s on his own, nudging him to call.
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You want to thin the field pre-flop with a big hand.
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Super loose limit game, you’re on the button with AA.
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You visibly ready a raise out of turn, discouraging speculative calls in front of you.
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Key ideas:
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These are mostly truthful signals (you actually plan to do what you’re “announcing”).
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Keep them subtle; if you overdo it, people may call you out for etiquette, or suspect collusion.
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Useful mainly in multi-way spots, especially on the final betting round.
3. Acting like you’re going to bet (to get info)
You can fake preparing a bet to provoke reactions:
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In limit or no-limit, you touch or lightly stack chips as if you’re about to bet.
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You then watch:
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Some opponents will preload a call → suggests strength (or defensive weakness, depending on their tendencies).
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Others may visibly tense up or go still → often weakness or discomfort.
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Important cautions:
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Keep it very small/subtle.
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In some rooms/rulesets, a forward motion with chips is binding.
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Overdoing this is considered by many to be angle-shooting, and it can make enemies.
4. Acting like you’ll call to prevent a bet
Used rarely, mainly in limit:
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You’re second to act with a marginal hand.
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First player seems about to bet.
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You mirror his chip reach, as if prepared to snap-call.
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He may:
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Reconsider and check, revealing weakness.
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Or continue anyway, showing strength and making your fold easy.
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Problems / limitations:
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You might stop a bluff you’d actually like to catch (you kill your own future EV).
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Only really makes sense vs tight, predictable players who don’t bluff much.
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Overuse makes it obvious and useless.
5. Acting like you’ll call to induce a tell
After someone has already bet:
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You reach for calling chips, start stacking/handling them.
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Watch for:
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Freeze / stillness / shallow breathing → often bluff / discomfort.
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Relaxed eye contact, chatting, or looseness → often real strength.
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This is basically using the “threat of a call” as a stress test.
6. Stalling after saying “bet” or “raise” (no-limit)
In some no-limit games:
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You can verbally declare “bet” / “raise” and then take a moment before physically pushing chips.
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While you stall, you can:
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See players preparing to fold,
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Or see someone itching to call or raise.
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Similarly, you might:
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Start cutting out chips and delay pushing them forward, watching the reactions behind.
Ethical note:
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These are some of the most questionable moves in the chapter.
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They rely on opponents acting out of turn or visually telegraphing their response early.
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The clean counter is: always wait until bets are fully placed and it’s truly your turn.
7. Showing your hand mid-pot to get information
Mostly a cash game only move (often illegal in tournaments):
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You’re in a big, close decision spot vs someone you read reasonably well.
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You expose your hand and honestly describe your dilemma (“I’ve got two pair, this is a tough spot.”).
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Their reaction to seeing your hand (body language, speech, eye contact) can:
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Reveal relief and eagerness for a call → often strong and comfortable.
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Or show new tension and discomfort → often overplayed or semi-bluffing.
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You won’t always get anything useful, but when you’re truly on the fence, it can sometimes tip the scales.
8. Conversational probes (“Will you show if I fold?” etc.)
Common questions players ask:
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“Will you show if I fold?”
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“Are you bluffing?”
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“What do you have?”
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“Why so big?”
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“How much do you have behind?”
Most weak players ask these purely for reassurance or curiosity.
Good players use them to:
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Trigger post-bet tells: watch eye contact, tone, stillness, irritation, or relaxation.
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Not so much for the actual words, but for how they are delivered.
Examples of interpretation:
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Friendly, relaxed, joking response → often suggests comfort/strength.
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Stiff, awkward, avoiding eye contact, forced smile → often bluffing/uneasy.
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Rude or aggressive answer (“Just play your hand”) after betting → usually not bluffing, because bluffers avoid antagonizing callers.
Humor, feigned anger, and feigned confusion all fall into this category:
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Humor can reveal who’s relaxed vs. who suddenly clams up.
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Fake anger (berating someone) can provoke genuine emotional responses from opponents.
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Fake confusion about bet size (“That’s 500, right?” while acting like you’re about to call) can get bluffers to nervously correct you and strong players to stay quiet and let you misstep.
Rule of thumb:
Use these tools sparingly, mainly in big, close spots. Talking too much usually means you’re the one giving away info.
9. Lying about your hand in a “friendly” way
Sometimes there’s a social goal:
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You bluff a recreational player who likes you.
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He asks, “You had the flush, right? Let me see.”
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You don’t want to show the bluff (protect strategy), but you also don’t want to be unfriendly.
Standard move:
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Decline to show now, but promise a later explanation, or give a vague answer later that keeps him happy.
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You can also lie later when there’s no strategic cost (e.g., off-hand reminiscence).
Goal: keep the fish liking you and comfortable while not revealing your real frequencies.
10. “Good bluff”
A simple trick to get people to show or tell:
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After someone bets and wins uncontested, you say seriously, “Nice bluff” or similar.
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Many mediocre players react by:
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Flipping over their hand to “prove” they weren’t bluffing,
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Or telling you privately what they had.
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Cheap, low-risk way to expand your database of how they bet various hands.
11. Image-building
You can use your talk and behavior to shape how others play against you:
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Your image = how others think you play and think.
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Goal: exaggerate their existing mistakes:
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Tight players → encourage them to fold even more.
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Loose players → encourage them to call even more.
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Over-aggressive players → encourage them to spew more.
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Examples:
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Against someone who folds too much:
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Show strong hands, hide bluffs, speak as if you’re solid and selective.
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Don’t flaunt your aggression; keep it just under their radar so they don’t adjust.
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Against someone who calls too much:
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Show occasional bluffs; brag about bluffs you didn’t make.
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Encourage them to believe you’re wild so they keep paying you when you have it.
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Against maniacal players:
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Make them think you fold too much or are scared → they’ll over-bluff.
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Or make them think you call very light so they cut down on their bluffs and become more predictable; it depends on what you want from that specific opponent.
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Critical constraints:
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Your words must be believable and consistent with your visible style.
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Don’t make outrageous claims (“I call with bottom pair every time”) if your actions don’t back it up.
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Image-building is slow and subtle; sudden, cartoonish acting just screams “I’m trying to trick you.”
12. False tells: faking classic signals
Elwood argues that elaborate, long-term “fake tell setups” (like a movie script) are impractical:
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They cost money while you set them up.
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The perfect payoff spot may never arrive.
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There’s no guarantee anyone is even tracking them correctly.
More realistic approach: occasional, simple fakes of well-known tells, mostly against strangers.
Examples:
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You’re bluffing and deliberately:
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Use a sad, reluctant tone (“Guess I’ll bet…”) with a shrug → many players read that as strength.
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Shake your head and show fake disappointment when betting → often read as strong.
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Act very still and give a tiny “nervous” smile after betting → good players may misread it as a bluff tell and pay you.
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Core points:
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Use false tells only when:
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You have a strong idea of how this opponent will interpret them.
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The opponent is unfamiliar with you (so they assume you’re just another standard weak player).
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False tells have fast diminishing returns vs. regular opponents.
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Many players accidentally create their own tells by only acting a certain way with strong hands (trying to look weak) – and that becomes a real pattern others can exploit.
13. Bluffing vs. the “calling reflex”
Many bad players love to call. They need very little excuse.
Implication:
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Being too fancy with false tells and psychological theatrics when bluffing often backfires:
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Your weird behavior becomes their justification to “look you up.”
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Against calling-station types, your best bluffing strategy is:
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Solid fundamentals (good spots, good board textures),
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And boringly consistent behavior (no extra reasons for them to get curious).
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14. “Fancy play syndrome” and when NOT to manipulate
Elwood’s big caution:
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Don’t make clever moves (false tells, speech tricks, weird actions) unless:
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You have a clear model of how they’ll be interpreted.
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You’re reasonably sure the long-term EV is positive.
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Otherwise:
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You’re just outplaying yourself, introducing random noise into spots that would be better decided with simple, solid strategy.
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Manipulation is extra spice, not your main dish.
15. Becoming unreadable
As stakes and opponent quality increase, your own tells matter more.
Key areas to standardize:
a) Bet timing
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Avoid patterns like:
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Instant call = medium-strength hand.
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Long tank = marginal spot or bluff.
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Consider:
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Always waiting a couple of seconds before acting, even on obvious decisions.
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Occasionally taking longer in trivial spots to normalize your timing range.
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b) Eyes
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Where you look after betting is a huge leak area.
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Common pro strategy:
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After making a big bet, stare at a neutral spot (board or center of table),
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Stay generally still.
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c) Betting motion
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Decide on a standard, repeatable way to put chips in:
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Same cut size,
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Same pace,
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Same arm extension.
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Avoid changes in speed / force that correlate with hand strength.
d) How much unreadability do you really want?
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Being robot-stoic all session:
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Can be mentally draining,
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Makes you look serious and tough, which may reduce action from weaker players.
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Practical compromise:
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Have a “serious mode” you switch on for large pots / later streets.
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Be more relaxed and social in small pots, but tighten up your behavior when real money is at stake.
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Core takeaway of the chapter
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Deception and manipulation can add EV, but only when:
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You understand your opponents,
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You can predict their reactions reasonably well,
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And you use these tools sparingly and purposefully.
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Most of the time, your edge should come from:
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Solid strategy, good hand reading, and basic psychology,
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With tells and fancy moves as occasional tie-breakers, not your main weapon.
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