Hamilton won anyway. At one World Series event this year, repeat champion Ted Forrest forces an opponent into a tell. Deciding whether to call a possible bluff, Forrest fakes a move to push all his chips in. His foe almost imperceptibly rocks back in fear. Forrest goes ahead and bets his chips, calling the bluff - and wins.
Poker psychology is so complex that top players sometimes fake the tells.
Then the decision becomes whether the tell you just saw was a reflex - or acting. Glazer, a poker scholar and player who's writing a book with Hellmuth, has feigned tells. I had a monster hand. I wanted the other guy to bet so I could take his money. He stared at me, and I wasn't making a move, so finally I gave a tiny gulp, like I'd had to gulp the whole time and just couldn't hold it.