{"id":2542939,"date":"2025-06-05T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/?p=2542939"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:52:57","slug":"but-then-a-live-tell-mike-caro-told-me-about-said-to-jam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/but-then-a-live-tell-mike-caro-told-me-about-said-to-jam\/","title":{"rendered":"But Then, A Live Tell Mike Caro Told Me About Said to Jam"},"content":{"rendered":"\"PeakGTO:<\/a>\n\n\n\n

I was just reading an interview with poker legend Barny Boatman<\/a>. Barny said, \u201cIf a player from that first [European Poker Tour in] Monte Carlo were to find themselves in the 2025 Main Event, they\u2019d think they were in a lunatic asylum!<\/em>\u201d

Poker has changed a lot in those 20 years since that first Monte Carlo event in 2005. The players are much better and more studied. The tools available to make you a better player would seem like science fiction to the 2005 poker community.

But fortunately, some things, like a live tell, haven\u2019t changed at all.<\/p>\n\n\n

\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\tTLDR:<\/strong>\u00a0See AI summary of this article.<\/span><\/div>

Old-school wisdom still wins pots. Recognizing a live tell and trusting 40-year-old advice from Mike Caro helped turn a bluff into a fold on the river.

The Setup (e.g., A\u2666Q\u2666 on J\u26669\u26633\u2666\u20135\u2660\u20132\u2663):<\/strong> Hero triple barrels a nut flush draw turned missed draw. On the river, facing a check and a subtle tell, a decision point arises.
The Tell:<\/strong> Opponent holds out three $100 chips, signaling readiness to call. According to Mike Caro, that means they don\u2019t<\/em> want you to bet\u2014they want you to check.
The Decision:<\/strong> Remembering Caro\u2019s maxim\u2014\u201cFigure out what your opponent wants, then disappoint them\u201d\u2014hero jams $800 into a pot of $800 with ace-high.
The Result:<\/strong> Opponent folds after tanking. The live read was real. The bluff works because hero trusted an old-school tell rather than just the solver line.

Key Takeaways<\/strong>
* Live Tells Still Matter:<\/strong> Solver strategy is great\u2014but live reads like \u201cchips in hand\u201d can reveal even more in real-time.
* Leverage Human Behavior:<\/strong> If your opponent\u2019s trying to influence your action, they\u2019re probably weak. Act accordingly.
* Classic Advice Still Wins:<\/strong> Caro\u2019s timeless strategy\u2014do the opposite of what they want\u2014is still sharp and profitable in modern poker.

Old-school reads + modern fundamentals = dangerous combination. Sometimes the best play isn\u2019t GTO\u2014it\u2019s just disappointing your opponent.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTable Of Contents\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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  1. Crazy Mike Caro<\/a>
  2. Recalling 40-Year-Old Advice<\/a>
  3. Le Plus \u00e7a Change\u2026<\/a>
  4. So I Disappointed Him<\/a><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

    Crazy Mike Caro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Players of a certain age will remember O.G. poker author and researcher \u201cCrazy\u201d Mike Caro. Mike plied the draw and lowball games of the Los Angeles area back in the 1970\u2019s, and was one of the first people to think analytically and quantitatively about poker. Doyle Brunson had Mike do a bunch of statistical and odds work for the original Super System<\/em> book, at a time when facts and stats we take for granted were largely unknown (or secretly held).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mike wrote a dozen (?) books and published thousands of articles about poker strategy. He was also famous for recognizing \u201ctells,\u201d and wrote an entire book about them. Mike has a way with words, and you\u2019ve probably heard one or more of his aphorisms, even if it wasn\u2019t properly ascribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Recalling 40-Year-Old Advice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    There I was in my regular $5\/$10 NLHE cash game poker<\/a> game. I\u2019d made it $50 in late position with A\u2666\ufe0fQ\u2666\ufe0f, and just the big blind had called.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With $100 in the pot, the flop was J\u2666\ufe0f-9\u2663\ufe0f-3\u2666\ufe0f. A great start for my hand. The BB checked, I bet $50, he thought briefly, then called. Now we had a $200 pot, and the turn was the blankest of 5\u2660\ufe0f. He checked again, and I sized up, betting $300, or 150% of the pot. Again, he thought briefly and called. $800 in the pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My original plan was to jam the river for the $800-ish we had left \u2013 almost exactly a pot-size shove. But I was getting \u201csticky\u201d vibes from my opponent. You\u2019re a poker player so you\u2019ll know what I mean, but I was now asking myself if checking down the second-nut-no-pair would be a better strategy, if it came to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Alas, the river was the 2\u2663\ufe0f, and all my ideas about having the nuts flew out the window. The good news is that my opponent checked for a third time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Jam? Check back and hope AQ was good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I was sitting on a mental fence, when my opponent made my decision for me. He took three $100 chips in his hand, and held them out in front of him, as if daring me to bet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Le Plus \u00e7a Change\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s a lovely French phrase, \u201cLe plus \u00e7a change, plus c’est la m\u00eame chose<\/em>.” It means, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” In 1985, Mike Caro would have laughed at you if you\u2019d told him about solvers and GTO poker<\/a>. But the poker players of 1985 are, in some ways, no different than their counterparts 40 years later. Mike was probably the first person to state this fact of live poker:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When somebody holds chips out in front of them, making it clear that they\u2019re going to call a bet, the very <\/strong>last<\/em><\/strong> thing they want is for you to bet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my opponent held those chips out in front of him, I barely suppressed a smile. It was as if he was participating in a photo shoot for a new edition of Mike Caro\u2019s Book of Tells<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I also remembered something else<\/em> Crazy Mike was famous for saying:

    \u201cFigure out what your opponent wants, then disappoint them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My opponent wanted me to check back. That meant that his poker range<\/a> had some showdown value. If he didn\u2019t have any showdown value, then he wouldn\u2019t care if I bet or checked, because he had no hope of winning the pot anyway. For instance, if he had 87, and had turned a double gutter, then it didn\u2019t matter if I bet or checked \u2013 he wasn\u2019t winning the pot with 8-high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    No, that \u201cchips in hand\u201d maneuver was intended to make me check back, and he thought he had a decent chance of winning if I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So I Disappointed Him<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I jammed my remaining $800 into the middle. I had a moment or two where I wondered if it was all Hollywood and he was just waiting to snap me off. But no, as soon I jammed, he sat back in his chair and put the chips back down in front of him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He did not like that bet one bit. He hemmed and hawed a while, but finally slid his cards, face down, back to the dealer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Me, I said a mental thank you to Crazy Mike Caro for those poker lessons in 1985 that are still invaluable, 40 years on.<\/p>\n\n\n\"PeakGTO:<\/a>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I was just reading an interview with poker legend Barny Boatman. Barny said, \u201cIf a player from that first [European Poker Tour in] Monte Carlo were to find themselves in the 2025 Main Event, they\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":2542960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2542939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mindset-lifestyle","category-poker-strategy"],"acf":{"peak_live_date":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam-373x210.jpg",373,210,true],"medium":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam-746x420.jpg",746,420,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam.jpg",1280,720,false],"author_image":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mike-Caro-Told-Me-To-Jam-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Lee Jones","author_link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/author\/jonesleehgmail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I was just reading an interview with poker legend Barny Boatman. Barny said, \u201cIf a player from that first [European Poker Tour in] Monte Carlo were to find themselves in the 2025 Main Event, they\u2019d […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2542939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2542966,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542939\/revisions\/2542966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2542960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2542939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2542939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2542939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}