Somewhat poker related, but I guess applies to life in general ... An article I stumbled upon called 'How to detect lies '. A pretty in depth description of all the things to look for when you are trying to figure out if someone is lying to you. This can obviously be applied to situations at the poker table.

Some highlights :

Liars mismatch facial expression with what they are saying .. either completely or partially. Imagine asking someone if he likes his hand and he replies 'I love my hand', and then a second later smiles. That's much less likely to be true compared toa case where he smiles AND says he loves his hand AT THE SAME TIME. In more obvious cases they could leave out the smile entirely.

Liars tend to sit still or restrict their movement. I know this effect as 'the freeze' ... someone shoves all in and sits entirely still, sometimes not even appearing to be breathing ! This person is not sure about their hand or on a complete bluff. While if they are chatty and moving around a lot, they are feeling confident.

Lots more good stuff in the article : http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies.php

There's also an article about micro expressions, these are harder to pick up but nonetheless important to know about. I have often noticed the involuntary 'snarl' of the upper lip when someone looks at the board ... they don't like the board !

Micro expressions :  http://www.blifaloo.com/info/microexpressions.php

After my last decision to stop cashing out every time I make some nice cash at the poker tables, but instead move up in stakes, I have not been doing so great. Granted, I have not been playing a ton, but progress seems to be really slow. I'm not sure if something in the games changed, or I was previously just running really well (in over 500 tourneys). But I seem to be experiencing a lot more swings.

In the past I would break even on most days, or have a slight win or loss. Then occasionally I would win $100 or $200 on a good day. Now I seem to go up $100, down $50, up $80, down $60, up $100 again, etc etc.I have increased my BR fromthe $300 I started again with to around $800, but it's not going fast enough !

I think I should give up on playing turbo tournaments since there is so much gambling to be done near the end of them. I have also decided to stop shoving blind vs blind on the bubble without a real hand. I bubbled so many times lately where people are making crazy calls with Q high against me. Maybe my table image is not as tight as I think it is ... or I'm playing against crazy degenerate gamblers who just don't give a F.

Whenever I play normal (non-turbo) tournaments I seem to do really well in them. They have enough time to wait for a real hand and double up, instead of always being on the short stack and looking for the small edges where you can shove profitably. Of course you need more time to be able to play these tourneys ... Again that time issue !

Sometimes you have to sell your soul for free stuff :)

That's why I had a few Pokerstars branded posts lately, so I would get a free $22 ticket to the S.C.O.O.P. of 2010 ! The Spring Championships of Online Poker !  I'm registered for it right now and it's going to start in about 12 minutes. Hot mug of coffee ready, I'm here to kick ass and chew fishcookies ! And I would be all out of fishcookies if it weren't for the 24000 other players that just signed up for this one ! Normally I don't play $22 tournaments, but more around the $5 range and the occasional $10 tourney. I still think I have decent edge in this field though since loads of people just randomly join this to enjoy the sheer size of the field and there are a ton of people satteliting in for under a buck.

I'm playing great the last few days, and ready to play a lot more in the upcoming week since I will be staying at my in-laws in Denmark. You got wifi ? I got Full Tilt Poker :) Hoping to run the bankroll up seriously this time ! No more cashing out to by TVs and iMacs !! On to the big bucks for real this time :)

I'll keep you all posted on my run in this event. I'm going to play my A-game for sure.

If you are getting bored from playing No Limit Holdem all the time, there are some other very nice poker games to try out. PLO, or 'Pot Limit Omaha' is like Holdem but you each get dealt 4 cards instead of 2. You have to use 2 of those cards to make your 5 card hand, but apart from that, there are almost no limits to what you can do with 4 cards ! Crazy action game for sure ... You can also play the much older '7 card stud' variant of poker, where you each get dealt 7 cards and no community cards at all. Probably best to try these games at play money levels first if you have never played them before.

They are for sure a good break for holdem grinders once in a while ... Here are some videos you can checkout about these games :

Here is "How to Play Pot Limit Omaha "

And here is "How to Play 7 Card Stud "

Enjoy these other poker games !