look for certain distinct actions that repeat themselves and see if there are strong or weak hands that follow….

I don’t look for tells. I play poker to have fun, though, not make money. If I win, i win. If not, it was money I planned on spending.
I think the only way to put people on hands is to play with those same people all the time in order to see how they play the game. I was a dealer and kind of got an idea of what my players had in their hand because of previous hands.

I observe players as much as possible during a game. So I guess on some level I am looking for tells. I read the Caro book, and the newer and better Hellmuth book. And I think it’s important to watch the action.

It is not always possible to put people on a specific hand and is often better to try and put people on a range of hands. You can get yourself in trouble if you convince yourself you know exactly what the other player hold.

To answer the second part of your question, I basically don’t touch my cards until it is my turn, choosing instead to watch the action as it goes around the table. That way I can’t give away a tell because I don’t even know what cards I have.

I try to be as observant as possible, and I think it helps to some extent.

You mention covering one’s mouth when strong…

I cover my mouth all the time…that tell wouldn’t work on me

Poker is more a psychology game than a card game. I dont try to put a hand on people, more a potential range of cards. It may be my downfall but I usually only play good hands and try to figure the percentage/odds of an opponents cards beating mine. Yes I look for tells but they are hard to find with people you have just met.

It’s much more important to classify a player’s hand in terms of probable strength. You take the situation, you take the player’s action, you compare it with similar actions, and you decide. This isn’t quite the same thing as putting someone on a hand, although that’s good to do if you can. In most cases you’re playing frequencies, meaning how often a player does a certain thing, and the more often the weaker the hand and vice versa. For instance you’ve been playing with someone for awhile and he’s folding everything pre-flop and now he’s pushing your raise all in, versus a maniac who’s doing this a lot. We can’t put these people on a hand per se, but we know that we’re talking two different hand strengths ON AVERAGE and I’m putting that in caps because it’s the key here. So you take the average hand strength a player is acting with and you play back with hands better than this average and on average you will win more than you lose in this situation.

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