Why Yes is the right answer at the Poker Table

A common thing that happens at a poker table is a guessing game related to what cards your opponents are holding.  This often happens when someone is trying to decide if they should call your bet or after you have thrown your hand out,  when you win a big pot of money or when everyone folds after you raise or bet, among other times.  The person usually says things like "did you make your straight?", "did you have a big pair?", " did you have my pair of Queens beat?" and other various guesses. 

My stratagy is to always answer these questions with one simple word, YES.

Here is the thing, it doesn't matter what you had, once the hand is over.  It only matters what your opponent thought you had.  Once they start guessing it's usually true that what they really want to know is whether they made the right decision to throw their hand away.  They want validation that they made the right decision. By saying "yes" to what ever they guess, you accomplish several things.

1.  You give them a false sense of security that they have a "read" on you.
2.  People often when guessing what hands someone has guess those they are most afraid of in the situation.  So now you likely know what hands they were afraid you had and therefore you have some clues about what they may have held in their own hand. 
3. Yes seems like a cooperative and friendly response.  I have found that this stratagy can at times result in some players randomly chatting me up thoughtout the game about what they had and how they choose hands to keep or play.  This is very valuable infomation that helps me make decisions about what hands to play against them. 
4. You always want your opponents to think that you are betting or raising with the best possible hand, by confirming their guesses you plant the seed that you had the best hand. 

So there you go, my strategy of "yes" at the poke table.