Today we will discuss the quick call. If you play on-line, tune to another website now. But if you play live, this will be a useful Thought.

You are in the big blind and flop a set of sevens on a board of J-7-3 with two spades. In this instance, you decide to check-raise, so you check and the last player bets. You raise and someone calls. Now the original bettor re-raises and you four-bet, again the caller calls two more and the button calls as well. Now a spade comes. Should you bet or check?

To some extent the answer lies in how fast the caller called. If that person has a flush draw, she will call without a thought most of the time. If she has some other hand, like AJ or QQ, she will have to think about what is going on, and should she raise, call or fold.

With a flush draw, most people know that at limit poker they are along for the ride…they want to play a cheaply as possible so they will not bet or raise. They also know they are almost always getting the right price to call, so they will never fold. This makes their decision easy and they just call quickly since that is the only real choice they have and they know immediately what they are going to do.

So if the calls are fast, you are now beat and you should check and call, hoping for the board to pair (Set Holder’s Prayer: Praise the Lord and Pair the Board). If the calls came slowly, then most likely you are not looking at a flush (at least from the caller) and you can bet.

This is one of the most reliable tells in poker. And I am reminding you of this to tell you to slow down when you have a flush draw and are facing bets and raises. You must be aware of your tempo in these situations and pause to avoid giving off these flush-draw tells.

You can use these tells to make and save bets (like you can muck your set on the river if you trust the tells), and you need to keep your opponents from gaining the same advantage.