146 – Blake Eastman – The Truth About Poker Tells
Click Here To Get Blake Eastman’s Behavioral Edge Workshop For Free
Summary:
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Blake Eastman didn’t believe that poker tells had much (if any) value.
Even as an adjunct psychology professor and founder of the behavioral research company The Nonverbal Group, he fell into the camp that believed old-school pros overvalued physical tells, and that betting patterns and game theory were all that really mattered.
However, being the researcher at heart he decided to put this theory to the test. To do this, he funded his own research study, where 79 players were filmed over the course of many hours of play.
After painstakingly analyzing the data over hundreds of hours, Blake found nothing. He watched film from players who were weak and found nothing. He watched film from players who were strong and found nothing. Just as he was about to give up, he decided to look at the data in a different light, and finally found the breakthrough he was looking for.
Blake had finally cracked the live poker tells code, and he’s gone on to consult with players in the biggest games in the world and helped significantly increase their edge in those games. He’s also packaged everything he learned from that study, and everything he’s learned since then, into his Beyond Tells course.
In this episode, Blake joins the show to discuss his journey from “Tells Skeptic” to “Tells Consultant”, and explains why Beyond Tells is so much different from every other book or course on poker tells in the market.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
[01:17] Welcome to this episode with guest Blake Eastman
- 1:38 How Blake Eastman became a world-leading expert on poker tells.
- 2:04 Blake opens up the first-ever brick-and-mortar poker school.
- 2:40 Blake believes that tells have little value, but the researcher in him wants to put that theory to the test.
[3:30] Blake uses “Grounding Theory” to finally crack the poker tells code after watching hundreds of hours of live play film.
- 5:32 Blake starts working with some of the game’s best players playing in the world’s biggest games, helping them increase their edge through behavioral tells.
- 6:28 The difference between the tells of beginning players and highly-experienced players (it’s probably not what you’re thinking).
- 7:12 The source of the most reliable poker tells, and why emotions have nothing to do with it.
- 10:11 Why the people who think they are the best at reading poker tells are actually the worst at it.
[11:09] How mindset work and behavioral tells combine to increase your edge.
- 14:42 Why the strategy you take to try to conceal your tells might actually be giving your opponents more information than the tells you’re trying to hide.
- 15:48 Blakes top tips for those who are looking to add knowledge of behavioral tells to their poker arsenal.
- 17:34 The type of players who would benefit the most from learning to read poker tells.
- 19: 18 How to decide if you need to work with a mindset coach or a technical coach.
- 22:11 Why some players can sound like a genius when breaking down a hand online, but absolutely flop when they actually take their game to the table.
- 24:42 What to do when you find a “gold-mine” tell and aren’t sure how much you should exploit it in the short term.
- 28:18 Go to BeyondTells.com/agame to get the first week of Beyond Tells 2.0 for free.
[31:00] Wrap-up—thanks for checking out this episode!
Key Learning Points: Discover The Behavioral Edge
In this episode, Blake Eastman laid out his process for discovering and exploiting behavior-based tells. He’s offered our listeners access to his “Behavioral Edge” workshop, absolutely free.
In this workshop you will learn:
- Why Your Approach to Poker Tells is Likely to be Flawed
- The 4 Specific Ways Players Leak Information at the Table
- The Most Common Behavioral Patterns in Players
- How Behavior Can Lead You to Play a Highly Exploitive Style
- Why Developing a Higher Level of Emotional Intelligence at the Table is Critical to Refining your Reads
- How Understanding the Filter Model of Perception Can Make You Tilt Proof
- The First Steps Towards Becoming Unreadable at the Poker Table
- Test Your Live Reads with The Poker Tells Assessment
- Attend Live Behavioral Breakdowns
- Gain Deep Weekly Insights into the Psychology of Poker
- Highly Skilled Opponents Will Become Easier to Read and Exploit
- Psychologically Manipulate Your Opponents With Speech Play and Subtle Changes In Behavior
- Play Significantly Better Poker and Significantly Increase Your Hourly Rate
>>> Click here to access The Behavioral Edge Workshop for free <<<
Contact/Resources
Get Blake’s Behavioral Edge workshop for free
Get The A-Game Poker Masterclass
Free Poker Mindset Audios on Youtube
Free Primed Mind Primers on Youtube
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About the Author Elliot Roe
Hi, I'm Elliot Roe... And I Help Poker Players Squeeze Every Ounce Of EV From Their Poker Skills and Abilities. Over 7500 poker players have downloaded my Mindset MP3s to boost their focus on the table and to relax and recover post-session. I have personally worked with hundreds more on mastering their emotions and the tabling and developing the “Pro-Athlete Mindset” needed to be successful into today’s games. Creating a strong poker mindset has been the “secret weapon” of the high stakes elite for years now, and I started this site to bring that edge to any player willing to work on that area of their game.