Poker Tell-Tale Signs and Pool

When I am playing poker, it's very natural for me to start flipping the chips in front of me.  I can flip them over each other between my fingers (called the "Thumb Flip"), either one handed or both hands at the same time. I can also merge two stacks of poker chips together with one hand (called "The Shuffle"). 

Here is the "Thumb Flip":



And here is the "Shuffle":



I know how to do this because around 2011 I played poker about twice a month for two years straight at Winstar (a very large casino on the border of Texas and Oklahoma). I saw players flip chips and stack chips with one hand all the time. So, as I would sit there waiting in-between rounds, I practiced those moves.  I got better at flipping chips than playing poker, lol!  But, it's still something that's pretty cool I can do.

I went to Vegas in February for my 50th birthday (yes I turned 50!), and every time I played the carnival-type table table games (like deuces wild, crazy 4 poker, ultimate Texas hold'em, high card flush, etc), I would flip the chips or stack my chips in front of me with one hand, strictly out of habit.

However, when I played live poker in the poker room on the last night I was in Vegas, I stopped myself from flipping or stacking chips, like I would normally do.  Instead, I just left them all alone (poor things!). A few times throughout the three hours I would catch myself about to flip the chips, then stop and set them back down casually in front of me.

The reason I did this is because I did not want my table mates (i.e. opponents/enemy) to know I knew how to play poker. I know, flipping chips isn't a sign I'm good at poker, lol, but it IS an indication I've been around poker a lot.

While this isn't something us pool players would normally do (hide our talent as we play pool), it IS something a hustler would do in the pool room who is trying to get action. 

"Melinda, what could possibly be similar in pool to flipping chips that gives you away?"

Good question!

If you are going to a bar or pool room trying to hustle, you don't want to give away that you can play good pool, right?  What's the point of hustling then?  lol. 

So little things like, you don't keep your hand flat when you're on the rail (tell-tale sign you aren't a top player), or maybe you don't stay down on your shots, or maybe you ask stupid questions to make you look naive:  "Hey, what is that thing?" (when they are using a magic rack). 

While I'm not trying to hustle poker players, I also don't want to give away immediately that I actually know how to play poker.  Give yourself a small advantage - legally and within the rules. Albeit I don't play poker very well, but I still do know the game and can play smart, and I don't want to give that away just by the way I flip or stack the chips one handed.

(My chip stack last year at Winstar Casino for my berday)

Pool Shirts and Hustlers

When I was moving from San Marcos, Texas to Jacksonville, Florida for a promotion with my job back in 1998, I did like most people and I went through a lot of my clothes to see what I didn't need anymore.

I came across a lot of pool-related t-shirts that I had collected over the past 8 or so years.  Some were from pool tournaments/venues and some were from pool rooms that I had visited.

It ran the gamut from Texas State events to New York Straight pool tourney to Vegas events to shirts from pool halls all over Texas and parts of Louisiana.

I figured out (not quick enough) that I hardly wore those t-shirts.  And yet I had a dozen or 2 dozen sitting lonely in my closet that I did NOT want to traipse across the country to Florida with me.

I asked one of my close friends if her son would want the shirts.  He played/gambled a lot of pool (in town and out) and he was my size.  I thought she would jump at the chance at so many free shirts for him, and figured he would love wearing shirts from different pool rooms because he played a lot more pool than I did.

When I told her about them, she laughed so loudly through the phone at me!

I was startled, "What?!  Why is this so funny?"

She explains, "Melinda, he hustles at pool.  The very last thing he would want to wear as he walked into an unknown poolroom is a BILLIARD shirt!  He wants to walk in like he's never played pool before.  If he wears a shirt from any pool room, it gives up part of the plan."

Shit, I didn't know.  I was too new to the concept of hustling and gambling.

Sounded so obvious after she said that, though, lol.

Example of Preparing - Tennis Hustling Style

As many know who read my blog consistently, I highly recommend the book "Winning Ugly" by Brad Gilbert.  My mental toughness and killer instinct skyrocketed because of this book.

Wanted to share an excerpt, that gives an example of how important preparation is.

"....
Here's a terrific example (although an extreme one) of the tremendous advantage the average player can get with good pre-match preparation.  And of what a disadvantage “just showing up" can be.  This particular player at the San Francisco Tennis Club used good mental preparation, good physical preparation, and some gamesmanship against a guy who just showed up and wanted to start playing.

For a big match (and he liked to bet $100 per set with certain players) this fellow (a bit of a hustler) would get to the court one hour early.  He had already spent time looking over his notes (yes, he kept notes of past matches).  He had given some attention to his game plan.   Next would be the stretching exercises to get completely loosened up.

Now would come the warm-up, before his opponent even arrived at the court. 

The “hustler” would hit with the club pro for thirty minutes, going through the strokes and touching up anything that was giving him trouble that day.  Nothing intense.  Just a real good warm-up.  Then he would leave the court, go to the locker room, and change clothes.  Now that he’s reviewed his game plan, checked his notes, done his stretching exercises, had a great warm-up, and changed into dry clothes, would he head back out to the court?  Of course not.  It was time for the final stage of the hustle.  He’d make sure he got there ten minutes late, apologize for the delay, and suggest that they cut the warm-up short.

Obviously, his opponent would be a little upset by the late arrival and want to get started to save time.  They’d move right into the match with only a “quickie” warm-up.  The “pigeon” would be handing over the money in straight sets. He would have saved himself $200 if he’d anticipated the behavior and prepared properly himself.  He got taken instead.  He had no plan, no system, no nothing. He let the other player control events because he wasn’t prepared.  He’d have been a lousy Boy Scout. 

The interesting thing about what this “hustler” did was that everything (except arriving intentionally late) was excellent preparation.   It's how a conscientious player should get ready to play a match.  Throwing in the last twist by arriving last was unnecessary (not to mention unsportsmanlike).  He was way ahead by doing everything else.  You can give yourself that same advantage.

...."

Preparations, people!

Steps Help with Pretending to be Drunk

One of the local pool room owners, when he first came into town decades ago, was going around town trying to hustle local pool players.

He would act drunk and hustle the money right out of their hands.

He tells this story much better and funnier than I ever could, but he went to this one local bar one night to see if he could make some money.

As he walked in to this bar he had never been to before, he had no idea there were stairs to walk down as you walk in the place:

(I took this pic during my ladies league one night)

So, as he walks in, he falls down the steps!  He didn't even have to pretend to be drunk - everyone already thought he was by the way he stumbled literally into the room!

But, it back-fired.  Usually you want to show you have been drinking after awhile, not right off the bat.  So, it actually hurt him - no one wanted to play him because they just thought he was super drunk, had no money, and didn't really want to play some serious games, so no one wasted any time on him.

He doesn't even drink at all, and he tried to tell the players that, but they weren't believing him at all, lol.

Oh to be the fly on the wall that night.

Poker Hustlers Loving Pool Players

When I was in Vegas in July for BCAPL Nationals, I was eating at a restaurant one night and the bartender asked me what brought me to town.  I told him I was here for a big pool tournament.

His reply was, "Oh, at the Rio."

"Uh, how do you know that?"

Usually the taxicab drivers know this info, but not bartenders at some random restaurant on the Las Vegas strip.

He said he was a part time poker player.  And that because a lot of pool players love to gamble (he's right, you know), that the pool players like to play poker, too.

So, he knows when all the big pool tourneys come to town because he hangs out in the poker rooms of the host casinos to take our money!

Hustlers in every sport, huh?

No Love for Pool

Boy pool is definitely not mainstream like golf, tennis or basketball, is it?

Because pool is not on TV it's very easy for even pros to walk into a pool room or bar or even a league event and gamble with not many people recognizing them.

This could never happen with basketball players or golfers or even tennis stars.

Last year one of my friends, a pro, who actually played on the Mosconi Cup, was able to walk into an APA event in Vegas and gamble because not many people recognized him and knew who he was.  A couple of times some people would walk by and say, "hey, hi xxxxx!"  Even with players hearing his first name and seeing people be excited, they still didn't realize or recognize who they were playing or who they were watching.

Pool is very popular in Asia and Europe.   It's on TV more there and the players are even written up in local gossip magazines if they do something crazy or whatever, but here in the US the idea that pros can walk into a venue without anyone knowing or recognizing who they are and be able to gamble is really kind of sad.

I'm sure this happens with golfers on small courses or with semi- famous tennis players on some remote tennis court, but because this can happen with pro pool players at a national league event, really tells the state of the sport, imo.

I wonder if in my lifetime pool will be mainstream. I don't know if many of you know that pool used to be on ABC Wide World of Sports pretty regularly. I would love to be able to talk to someone at ABC and ask them why did y'all stop covering pool?  I'd be very interested to see what the reason was.

Billiard Shirts and Gambling

Back in the mid 90s, I had gone through my closet one day and all the old t-shirts I didn't want anymore, I was going to donate to the Salvation Army.

Before I did that, though, I thought that my one of my good friends' son may want all the pool shirts I had.

You know, the ones from pool rooms, or pool tournaments, or big events (like BCAPL in Vegas).

I asked her, "Do you think John would want these shirts?"

She laughed so hard I could barely understand her.

"No, Melinda, are you serious?" still laughing.

"Uh, yea, he wouldn't want them?  We are the same size."

"No, Melinda.  He can't walk into a pool room with a billiard shirt on if he's trying to get a pool game."

"Oh, okay," I replied, not REALLY understanding what she meant completely.

He was a hustler.  He traveled all around.  If we was to walk in a pool room, trying to act like he doesn't play pool but has a POOL shirt on, well, that obviously gives it away.

I didn't realize what I was truly asking til many years later, and how important it was to really seem like you aren't a pool player.

I remember once he even dyed his hair blond to seem like he was a surfer or in the sun a lot or something.... just so he wouldn't seem like a pool player.