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Picking Up Poker Tells

Picking Up More Information Leads To Picking Up More Chips

Being able to put a read on your opponents is one of the most important, if not the most important skills in poker. When you are playing at a casino or a card club, you have your opponent’s right in front of you, and will be able to pick up on certain gestures, postures, etc in order to get some “tells” from them and be able to get a read on their holding. A tell is something a player does whether it is verbal or non verbal that clues you in to the type of hand they possess. When you are playing poker online, you simply do not have that luxury, and need to pay attention to a few different types of factors in order to get a good read.

Live players often pick up tells from their opponents eye movements, and because of this, you will often see players wearing sunglasses, or a hat so as to not give off any eye-tells. Some of the other things that experienced players use to pick up reads on there opponents is the way they are postured (if it changes with a big hand vs. a draw etc), holding or fumbling with chips, or certain muscle movements and twitches. Conversation is another thing a lot of players will use to gain information. A high level player will often try and coerce a novice into talking with them and giving their hand away without ever knowing it. The top pro’s sometimes seem to have super-human abilities when it comes to reading an opponents hand, they collect all of this information and put it to perfect use.

Tells In Online Poker

The information you get from your opponents when playing online is far different from all of the information you get at a live table. While it is different in that you have no visual recognition abilities, you do get a lot of other valuable information that you may focus on. There are certain things you will see most of your opponents doing in certain situations, and it is important to recognize when this is happening. You also need to make sure that you as a player are not giving off to much information because you are so wrapped up in focusing on your opponents.

1. The Amount of Time a Player Is Taking To Act

Understanding this will go a long way in picking up reads on your opponents. This shows the amount of thought your opponent has to put into his or her decision, and unless it’s a particularly awkward spot, you should be able to pick up some good clues. If you see a delayed check from an opponent, it generally means they were thinking about bumping the pot, but decided not to risk it with their mediocre holding. If you see a player making an immediate call or raise, this is a definite sign of strength, or perceived strength. One thing to always keep in mind is that a players perception of a strong hand and an actual strong hand are two different things.

2. Chat Box Happenings

I know many of you are saying I sit at a table online for 2 hours, and nobody says anything except “nice call donkey” and “I can’t win a race to save my life”! While these are not direct tells for a given hand, they are tells regarding the players state of mind. Look for the players who are obviously on tilt and saying things in the chat box, those are the players you want to attack.

3. Tells From a Style Of Play

Again, not a direct tell in a given hand, however, picking up on the way someone plays and being able to exploit it are very important when it comes to poker. There are two specific types of play styles that you want to be on the lookout for, both of which you can exploit.

The Maniacs

It seems that there are more and more hyper-aggressive players coming into the poker world every day, lucky for us players, most of them have no idea what they are doing. These are the players who feel the need to raise every pot that gets limped to them. These players often have success with this early; however they get stuck in this hyper-aggressive mode never being able to shift gears. Recognize this, be patient, and put a hurting on the maniacs.

The Consistent Limper

Like the maniacs, these players also want to be in every hand, the difference is that they are quite passive, and time after time will fold to a raise. You can punish this style by raising when they limp, even with more marginal hands. You want to face these players heads up to take full advantage. Be wary when these players bet or raise into you, as they probably have a premium holding.

Poker is a game of information, and this is certainly not a comprehensive list of everything you want to look for, but it’s a great start. Elite poker players have a very high level of focus and concentration on their opponents and are constantly looking to pick up more information. Work on making better reads and picking up tells next time your online.

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