With the recent popularity of televised “Texas Hold ‘Em” poker games comes a new world-wide craze for poker and the strategies involved in winning. It’s no secret that more than half the skills needed to win at poker are about reading your opponent’s moves and body language, commonly known as “tells.”

Often times, players are unaware of what the subtle moves their body, eyes and behavior give away about their hand and how they feel about it. It’s especially true for players just out to have fun and maybe make some extra cash on a weekend in Vegas. A great poker player is constantly observing the tells and can pick up on when someone is trying to bluff their way out from behind a not-so-good hand. Understanding and picking up on these tells are half the strategy of the next move.

When it comes to reading the subtle clues of your opponent’s behavior during your games, it begins by just paying attention.

1. Cool detachment. Yes, the stakes are high, and your nerves are rattling. But get out of the emotion of it by stepping into the director’s shoes, as opposed to being the actor on the stage. As the actor sitting at the poker table, your focus needs to remain engaged in the action there, but a part of you must also learn to step back and observe the scene from a broader range. From this detachment, you will be free to remove yourself from reaction and position yourself in a new controlled position of action and control, always the more powerful place to be.
2. Size Them Up. Even before you sit down, begin to take mental notes on the other players at your table. Also remember to work quickly and concisely, because here, time really is money. Notice who the big bold players are, and also who the shyer, more reserved players are. Bold players will sit differently. They take up the whole chair, with bigger hand and arm movements, and often speak intentionally louder than everyone else, as a way to control the conversation. The less assured players will be sitting back trying to cover their cards with their hands and purposefully not making eye contact. Also remember that players will react differently during the shuffle than they do while the hand is being played.
3. Learn the Tells. Look for any physical reactions going on with your opponent—eye twitches, blinking, fingernail biting, or any other tiny gestures they might be making. Notice what their breathing is like, but don’t jump to conclusions until you have studied this behavior. Accelerated breathing can often indicate good cards, but a great poker player will know to fake this to throw you off. Any color change in the skin, shifty eyes scanning what is left of the chips or gazing off as if distracted, shaking, jittery or fidgety movements. Watch, and wait, and see.
4. Spend some time studying. Spend some time playing the table, watching and observing if indeed this particular tic precedes a good hand for them, or if this rubbing the eye always comes before a bad hand. Pay attention, because over time, you will get a gut feel for what you are picking up as the observer. As you watch the patterns of the players you start to feel the specific expression of everyone’s tells.
5. Become aware of your own tells. Be exceptionally aware of the messages you are giving off. Don’t make any moves without forethought as it how it will affect your opponent, based on what you read in his tells. You might even have to spend some time practicing controlling your tendency to fidget.
   

   I got this hand in the bag!

6. Sometimes, you want to make them think your hand is good. Commonly, a player will react meekly if they wish to throw you off. A good player will mix up their intentional tells, sometimes coming on strong with a great hand, sometimes playing it back. This kind of strategy is an equal part of the process of being an exceptional player. Acting in this way is considered a valuable skill in high stakes poker, almost as sly as counting cards.
7. Discover the pattern of the other players’ behavior. Is it that they begin to talk when they had been quiet? Are they holding their arms differently? Open or protective? They may start talking when they were previously quiet. They may cross their arms differently or even hold their cards in a more protective manner. The keenest observer and shrewdest actor will be the big winner at the end of the day.
8. Ignore the stare-down. Other players will inevitably try to intimidate you. One of the best defenses against this tactic is to purposefully stare back no matter what shape your hand is in. Be sure to not be consistent with your inconsistent responses!
9. Forget the distracters. Poker players will go to great lengths to stretch the boundary of acceptable strategy. Some fakers will make disgruntled noises, or get loud and jocular, just to confuse you. Stay focused, detach and turn the tables by being in control of your own tells. Make these showboaters think they are getting to you, just to throw them off.
10. When reading other players, understand pros won’t allow you to read them, which is why they are, of course, pros. However, most every game has amateurs, which you should be able to spot rather quickly.

No one is completely immune to giving off tells. But with patience, practice, perseverance and skill, over time you can learn the fine art of poker tells and how to exploit this information to gain advantage. If you spot a tell that means your opponent has the advantage, lay down your cards before the flop; when you find a player who is showing weakness, raise your bet. Just one more tool to get the win.

Addictions manifest in many ways. Some turn a fun hobby like shopping into a financial nightmare. Other times, addictions pose health risks, especially when the addiction is drug or alcohol related. It really does not matter what you are addicted to. The only thing that matters is that you realize that you have a problem and are ready to take the steps needed to take your life back. In this fight, your mind is your biggest ally. It has all the power you need to get back on a healthy track.

You need to get to the root of your problem. Your problem is not with any substance or activity. Your problem is with what drove you to seek refuge in an addiction. Maybe it is to fight boredom. Maybe it is to get a rush. Whatever it is, you need to figure out what drives you to put your life on hold for an addiction. When you have it singled out, find healthy alternatives to receive the feelings that you crave.

Notice what is going on around you when you get an urge to partake in you addiction. If you figure out your trigger, you can plan to avoid any situation that will make you weak. In the beginning of the fight with addiction, you will need to stay away from obvious stressors and triggers in your life. Eventually, you can work up the strength to stare down the habit and walk away clean.

The next step in this basic method comes in week two. Make a note every time you want to indulge in your addiction, and also make a note of what’s going on around you at the time. For example:

Cigarette craving 1:00

Just ate lunch

Smoked 1 cigarette

By keeping track of what happens when you have a craving or a need to do something, you can find your triggers, and make yourself realize what causes the urge – and then find a way around it. If you always have a cigarette after lunch, try something new in your routine for at least three weeks. For example, instead of going to a café where smoking is allowed, eat lunch at a different restaurant. Don’t give yourself time to smoke after you finish eating, either. Go right back to work. We are creatures of habit, and addictions are all about breaking these habits. Did you know that you can form a new habit in as little as 27 days? Don’t use chemical dependency as an excuse. Once the withdrawal phase is over, your road blocks are purely in your mind.

Your new daily routines and habits should reflect your new life. Do not stay in the same patterns that you did while you were in full throws of addiction. This trap sets you up to fall back in to repeated patterns, including the ones that drove you to addiction. Vary what you do day to day. This will keep you open to better and more healthy life choices.

As you face your addiction, remember this fight will be for your life. You need to stay strong and take back control of your life. You can and will do it if you put your mind to it.

Reading someone’s mind through telepathy has a long and legendary history. But if you want to have this ability too, you may have to rethink what mind reading is. If you envision closing your eyes and having someone from across a stage project their thoughts into yours, so that you can “hear what they’re thinking,” you are out of luck. People claim to be able to do this but they don’t teach their methods to anyone. However, mind reading is still open to you, and everyone, really, through a technique called Cold Reading.

Cold Reading is actually a set of techniques developed to give the appearance of reading someone’s mind. In fact what you’re reading are signals your subjects, i.e. the people whose minds you intend to read, are subconsciously giving you without their knowledge.

Sounds pretty cool, huh? It is. It’s great at parties and in business. For the most entertaining form of Cold Reading, watch Derren Brown’s show on British Television: the Illusionist. This highly popular show exhibits Derren Brown, a mind reader who explains and dissects his ability, reading people’s minds, hypnotizing them, and even controlling their actions. In one episode he walks through the streets of a bustling city asking people for their wallets, phones, and watches, and without so much as a moment’s hesitation, they all give them to him.

Cold Reading won’t give you abilities like Derren Brown’s, at least not at first. Here’s how to Cold Read: First, choose a subject carefully. The main ways to do this are to either to pick someone you know already, but who doesn’t know you; to ask for a volunteer from the audience, because presumably the volunteer will want you to be able to commune with the dead or do whatever you claim to be able to do; or to “shotgun the audience,” which means you make broad, general statements to a group of people such as “I’m sensing someone here has problems in their marriage.”

The next step is to profile your subject. This means you learn as much about your subject from their body language, dress, and reactions to you. Everything visible about a person can help you build a set of assumptions with which you can begin to predict specifics about that person’s personality and background. The next step is to go fishing for revelations about your subject’s life.

You may know next to nothing about the person in front of you, and you don’t need to—they will give you the secrets about themselves without realizing they are, if you ask questions about them in such a way that they appear to be statements. For example, if you they’re the person who has marital problems, you could say, “you’re marriage has been on your mind a lot lately, hasn’t it?” If you’re wrong about your statement, it doesn’t mean you’re not a psychic, because the statement was just a question.

Most of the time, your subjects will supply more information than necessary from these question-statements. It’s from these confessions that you learn more about your subject. To do this well you have to be a great listener, to really open yourself to all the information the subject is releasing to you, from what they say to how they move their hands. Every bit of data is vital for the would-be psychic.

Another technique is to use Barnum statements, which are named after P.T. Barnum, cofounder of the famous circus by the same name. A Barnum statement is one that applies to nearly everyone, such as: “you have a big decision to make soon.”

From these techniques and others you’ll give your subjects the impression you’ve read their mind, when in fact you’ve just appeared to, using specific methods to pull out secrets the subjects themselves have supplied.

There are simple tricks to flex the hidden mind power you possess, and like a bodybuilder looking to add more muscle mass, the key to realizing mind control is through regular, simple exercises. Psychokinesis, often referred to as PK, is a term used to describe the ability of the brain to affect inanimate objects and otherwise control your surroundings, and there have been many famous users of this ability. Benefit from their knowledge by practicing these simple exercises every day, and over time you will realize your mind’s full potential.

Starting with the right mindset is the most important prerequisite to your psychokinetic work out. Arrogance, fatigue, anxiety, doubt, and overexcitement are all enemies of your success, and will hinder even your best efforts. If you are considering developing your psychic powers with malicious intent, such as for greed, revenge or a desire for attention and fame, your powers will not manifest themselves. Approach these exercises with a humble, sweet, and open heart, and be ready to practice every day: discipline, willpower and patience will show you the path to your mental abilities.

Many beginners start practicing mind power by learning how to feel the energy between their hands with a ball of

psychic energy, also known as a “psi ball.”

• Balance yourself by seeing yourself as the roots of a tree, reaching down into the solid earth. You are connected with the earth, bound to the soil, perfectly grounded.
• Understand that there is energy flowing through you at all times; this is called “psi,” and you must feel and recognize the flow of it throughout your body. A psi ball is created by moving this energy. Usually, people describe a psi ball as being about the size of a baseball, or maybe slightly larger, although some are large enough to act as a shield, fitting around the entire body.
• Gather this energy, and when there feels like enough energy, hold your hands out, keeping them steady. Make sure that whatever way you extend your hands (or hand), it feels natural and right.
• See the hole in your hand. A small door has been unbolted and the psi, or energy, is trickling out. Can you feel the psi yet? Is it a slight tingling sensation, or more like a sense of pressure or emanating heat? When you think you can feel the psi, try to move your hands close together. If there is a resistance sensation, however slight, you know it’s there.
• Play with the psi flow. Now you can use visualization to make the available psi into a ball, a cube, a pyramid: only your imagination restricts you.
• If you were just practicing, simply release the ball.
• After you have gotten the hang of your psi ball, you can try programming the psi ball to get a friend’s attention.
• With very clear mental intent, send the ball to “poke” someone and give them a message. Go ahead and say the words in your head; this will help solidify your intentions.

Another invaluable tool which will help you to refine your PK powers is the psi wheel. The observable nature of your power through the psi wheel will be extremely satisfying. Try this when you have mastered your psi ball. You will need a small bit of paper or foil, an eraser, and a needle.

• Cut a piece of foil or paper down to the size of a Post-It. Fold it diagonally and press down on the fold to create a crease. Unfold.
• Create another diagonal fold on the opposite corner. Crease. There should now be a crease in the shape of an “X”.
• Now fold the square lengthwise and widthwise, creating a cross through the center.
• Pinch the “X” shape, allowing the center to pop up. The paper should look somewhat like a three dimensional, four pointed star. You’ve created a psi wheel!
• Pressed the pointed end of your needle into the eraser. It should stand up perfectly straight.
• Set your wheel on the center of exposed end of the needle. You are ready to use the psi wheel!
• Place your on the side of the wheel, without touching it, and concentrate. Your palm should be facing the psi wheel. It will rotate when you’ve gathered sufficient psi.

Here’s another basic skill building technique which uses a candle flame:

• Light a candle, any type will do.
• You will now attempt to fuse your energy together with the candle’s energy field. Relax your mind and focus on the flame; visualize yourself becoming one with the flame; you are the flame. This is called “pacing.”
• “Lead” the candle flame. Picture the flame growing longer, then receding, waning to the side as if being blown, then bending to the other side.
• When you’ve had success, visualize your separation from the candle.

Next, try working with a pendulum. There’s no need to purchase a special pendulum; you can create one by simply attaching a ring to a string or thread. The exercise works best if the pendulum is attached to a stand and is hanging in front of you, rather than held in your hand.

• Pace the pendulum; remember, to pace is to focus until you merge with the object or material.
• Lead the pendulum; remember, to lead is to use your fused energy to move the object through mental projection. Imagine the pendulum moving back and forth, side to side, and spinning.
• When you’ve been successful, emerge from the pendulum and return to your normal state.

When you have mastered the flame, the pendulum, the psi ball and psi wheel, you are ready to attempt to manipulate small objects.

• Place a lightweight, small object on a flat surface.
• This will sound familiar, because it is. Relax, and begin to pace the object. Your mental powers should now be strong enough, through practice with other objects, to do this effectively.
• Imagine that a tunnel extends between you and the small item. Only allow your awareness to acknowledge the tunnel and the item at the end of it.
• Visualize hands reaching out from your mind and dragging the item through the tunnel. You should “feel” the pull.
• When you are experiencing the pulling sensation, it might help to make an “nnnnn” sound with your mind.
• Watch the object move, using only mind control.