Beware of the Hollywooding

You make a bet, and your opponent goes into the tank. He starts babbling. “You must have hit it. You hit it, huh? You made the darn flush on me.”

Either your opponent is genuinely torn over whether to call, or he’s Hollywooding — he has the nuts and wants to seem weak so he can get the last of your cash.

The giveaway is what your opponent does after the speech. If it’s the river and he just calls, then he was really in the tank. If it’s the river and he raises, then he was Hollywooding and has a monster hand. People don’t give the speech and then raise as a bluff. The speech followed by aggression is a dead giveaway for a huge hand.

I recently played a hand that made me think of this giveaway. Blinds were $2-$5. I had 2♥ 2♠ in the big blind and called a $5 raise in a fourhanded pot.

The flop came 7♠ 5♠ 5♣ .I checked, and it was checked around. The turn was the 2♣, and I bet $35 with my full house. Two players called.

The river was the 9♣, putting a possible straight and a backdoor flush on board. I bet $200, hoping to get a suspicious call. The next player started with the speech. “You hit the backdoor f lush, huh? I knew I should have bet earlier. Darn flush.”

Much to my surprise, he moved all in for a little over $200 more. The other player folded, and I called. He showed 7♥ 7♣ for the flopped full house.

Giving the speech and then raising is such a strong giveaway for a monster hand that I probably should have folded my full house. When he aid he was afraid of the backdoor flush and then put me all in, the worst hand he could have was the nut flush, and he could have made a full house in numerous ways. Holding the worst possible full house, I was a significant underdog. I was getting 4-to-1 on my call, so I’d need to win only 20% of the time to justify calling. But I don’t think I’d win even that often.

This shows the giveaway power of the speech. If he’d just raised all-in, I would have called and expected to win. Since the speech came first, though, I was expecting to lose when I called.

It’s worth noting that the speech becomes more of a giveaway the later in the hand you get. If your opponent hems and haws preflop, then says, “I guess I’m ready to go home now” as he pushes all in, he doesn’t necessarily have pocket aces. But on the river, no one hems and haws legitimately and then pushes all in. If you hear the speech and then your opponent moves in, he was putting you on.