 Although the majority of Poker tells are confined to the live poker environment, there are still a few things you can watch out for when playing online to help influence your decisions at the poker tables. But firstly to clarify for those who may not be in the know, a ‘tell’ is something that your opponent does to give away the strength of their hand, and thus allowing you to capitalise by making a better play based on the information you have gained from your opponent.
For example, if you are playing live poker and your opponent puts you to a tricky situation by pushing all-in on the river when you are unsure of whether or not you hold the best hand, you may well be in two minds about calling or folding. However, if you know that your opponent scratches his or her nose every time they make a bluff and they do so after moving all in, you can happily make the call and catch them out on their bluff. Obviously this is a pretty simplified and crude example, but the principle can be applied to the online poker world, even though it is not possible to physically see your opponents.
Here are a few of the best online poker tells that you can look out for next time you are at the tables.
The long wait and call/raise
If you notice that your opponent lets the timer run down before making a call or raise, you should certainly be suspicious about their hand. This is because they may well be trying to fool you into thinking that they have a hard decision to make because their hand is not very strong, but more often than not it is going to be the opposite. It is typical for players to act weak when they are strong, and act strong when they are weak, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking that an opponent is weak just because they take a long time to think and let the timer run down.
Calling the blinds, then calling a raise
This is one of my favourite tells when I am trying to determine whether my opponents are solid or weak players. One of the best ways to determine this is to look at the way they play their hands on the preflop betting rounds. If you see a player calling the blinds, and then calling a raise from another player, you can be sure that the particular player in question does not have a sounds preflop strategy, and so will probably have a number of other leaks in their game.
This is because if you are first to enter a pot in no limit Holdem, you should always try and come in for a raise if you have a strong hand. Being the first to limp is normally a weak play, and so you should avoid doing so. However, lets assume that the player limping in does have a weak hand but is trying to see a flop for cheap; but unfortunately, there is a raise after them. If this player calls this bet we can assume that they are either calling this raise with a sub-standard hand, or they are misplaying their strong hand by not being the first to raise. Therefore this kind of play will usually lead me to believe that the player is a weak and/or an amateur.
Calling the blinds, then re-raising a raise
If you ever see a player calling the blinds and then re-raising a player that raises after them, you can be fairly sure that they have a very strong hand like pocket Aces or Kings. This is because some players will try and be sneaky by limping in with a monster hand, with the intention of raising another player’s raise in the hopes that they will be able to get even more money into the pot than if they had just raised themselves. However, this is a dead giveaway that they have a monster hand, and the majority of decent players will be aware of this and fold unless they have an equally strong hand themselves.
The use of check boxes
Whenever you play poker online, you will notice that there is a number of boxes that you can check in the table window to predetermine the play you intend to make before the action reaches you. It is fairly easy to tell if an opponent has used one of these check boxes because they will instantly check, call or raise as soon as the action is on them. If you notice a player is frequently using these check boxes, we can use the fact that they have decided their play even before that action gets to them to our advantage.
If a player instantly checks, you can be fairly sure that they are disinterested in the hand, as they do not have a strong hand to play with. If you notice that a player checks the box to raise and instantly raises another player’s bet, you can be sure that they have a very strong hand as they had no concern of how another player at the table may have acted before the action got to them. On the other hand, if you notice makes an instant call, they may have an incomplete hand, and may be drawing to a flush or a straight.
Summary
It is important to note that none of these tells will give you any concrete information on the strength of your opponent’s hand, but I have found these particular tells to be quite accurate and the ones that I look out for the most. So try to avoid relying on these tells too much when making your decisions, and stick to playing well with a strategy that you know works well.
The key to finding tells is to study your opponents, to try and find out what they do in each particular situation. Such as how they play their hands when they have the best of it, and how they play there hands when they are drawing or bluffing. These are the best tells of all, and they are always going to be more reliable than trying to find out small ticks from your opponents. The best way to make a read on your opponent is to analyse the way they have played their hand up until that point, but there is no harm in looking for tells if you think that you will gain an advantage from doing so.
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