After watching Phil Ivey play time and time again, I've finally uncovered a serious tell of his...
If you watch him play a lot, you will find that he's always chewing gum...
I had some friends over last night watching the WPT. Phil was playing...
I told them what I had noticed about him, and as they all watched, they began to break out in waves of laughter every time my theory was proven!
What is this tell, you ask?
Well........
As I said, Phil Ivey is always chewing gum when he plays. I have noticed, that when he has a strong hand pre-flop, he chews verrrrrrrry slowly, sometimes stopping completely. Same goes when he hits that hand. But if he misses, or doesn't like his hand, he chews his gum faster, or at a more normal pace.
At first when I told my friends this, they were like "yeah, right..."
BUT....as we sat and watched Phil play, it became more apparent that I wasn't losing my mind!
Example: Phil got dealt pocket 10s. His gum chewing slowed almost to a stop. As he made his bet and was called, he still barely chewed his gum at all. The flop hit his 10s, giving him a set. Again, he barely flinched. The end result was that he won the hand, and when he did, he began chewing his gum normally again.
Later on, Phil is dealt 86 suited. His gum chewing remained at a normal pace (signifying he wasn't that happy with his hand pre-flop). The flop hit his 8, but a player holding A2 hit his 2 on the flop also, and made a massive raise into Phil. After some long thought and continued gum chewing, he stopped chewing his gum and was very still....then he re-raised the other player....the end result was Phil won again, and again, when the hand was over, he continued chewing his gum normally. LOL
My friends got so good at reading his "gum chewing tells" that even they could tell when he was going to fold before he did it, just by the way he was chewing his gum.
I know this sounds crazy, but I just wanted to share this so the next time you see him playing, watch for this......and see if you notice the same patterns.
