If you have ever watched one of the over the top, high budget Hollywood films that depict gambling and poker as this tremendous conflict of wills between two individuals, you might believe that learning tells and slow playing every hand is the technique for winning at poker. The truth is, there is much less emphasis on learning body language and tells than the player might think, simply because it is too easy to hide these types of tells in the professional poker player. Considering that anyone that you might be playing against at any level of skill has been working on hiding their tells and keeping a poker face for their entire career, depending on suddenly developing the ability to detect emotional reactions to the players cards through their body language, something that thousands upon thousands of players before you have repeatedly tried to do and failed, is a recipe for disaster.

Instead of focusing on learning the opponents tells, it would be more important to get inside their head and try to rattle them. Professional Texas Hold’em poker tournament players such as Jamie Gold specialize in this type of behavior, constantly ragging on their opponents as they needle them and continue to play aggressively at the poker table. And by constantly agitating the opponent, there is no end to the amount of stress and distractions that are introduced into the level of strategy that you have applied against your opponent. Constantly chattering away gives the poker player very little time to gather their forces and marshal their defenses, or formulate a reasonable strategy in their minds.

Getting inside your opponents head can be as easy as keeping up a stream of constant conversation. Nothing specific has to actually be said, simply repeatedly breaking their concentration can be enough to provide you with the upper hand in the long run. With this focus on constantly inputting information and chattering away at your opponent, without actually giving anything away by your own strength of your hand or any other information about your emotional state, can be a very effective method of getting into your opponents head while playing poker.

Considering the amounts of money that are played for in the typical Las Vegas Texas Hold’em poker tournament, it is easy to see why players would want to utilize every possible effective method of slanting the odds in their favor and bringing the best possible game that they can to the table.

Related posts:

1. Getting inside the Head of the Poker Tournament Player Competition
2. Several Pointers for reading poker tells
3. Online Poker Tournaments
4. Important paths in hold’em.
5. Determining Tells in Online Poker Rooms and Casinos