Poker tells are ways to geta 'read' on your opponent's probable hand
Much is made of poker tells in real-world
play, such as big final tables of live events.Mike Caro wrote an entire book on the subject, showing what a person's behaviour at the table -- body language, speech, amount bet, way of that bet going in -- told you about their likely hand. There's also a DVD by Howard Lederer that we'll be reviewing soon.
This is all very well when you can observe your opponent for real; online, you are at best faced with an avatar, at worst, just text describing the person's username.
What possible poker tells can there be in such a mechanical environment?
We're only Human, after all!
Remember that there are human beings controlling the actions of each player (unless you subscribe to the bot theory!). Humans are, more than anything else, creatures of habit.
Picking up on those habits can give you an edge against the player. Once you get to know them, you can rely on your knowledge of their poker tells to be worth a few extra dollars per session you play against them.
These are fairly advanced concepts, so bear with me. Novice players: let me sum up very quickly by saying that there are NO 100% reliable tells, cheats or systems to beat online poker. Study, practise and experience are your best tools.
What's in a name?
Names are surprisingly good indicators of a player's ability, or lack of it.
There is an impressive shortage of imagination in the names of online poker players. Most consist of a combination of hand names (including AA, Aces, KK and various straight flush names, four of a kind names etc.), or a description of the person themselves.
Fairly
typical are names involving Bluff, Take Your Money, I'm a
Loser, River, Flop The Nuts etc.
Presumably these people believe they are being extremely clever in choosing these names. What wit! Playing poker and using names related to aspects of it!
Oscar Wilde would be green with envy. But dullards aside, what CAN you learn about a person's choice of player name?
OFTEN THEY ARE BEING HONEST ABOUT THEMSELVES.
This is so surprising that I capitalised it. Yes, when people describe themselves as a bluffer, they often are! When they talk about rivers, you will find that they play to the river more often than average people do.
Best of all, most people who describe themselves as losers usually lose! How's that for a brutal assessment of your own ability?
The flipside is that people who use imagination in their poker names may well be more imaginative players.
Surprisingly, thinking players can be bluffed more easily, because they are more able to fold a big hand than weaker, non-thinking players.
Poker tells revealed by betting patterns
Very often, a person's betting patterns tell you a fair bit about their hand. I have identified several interesting poker tells related to a person's betting habits.
The spare change bet
The player is sitting with $162.73 and bets
$12.73. This is often the player's way of 'tidying up' his stack and he
will usually back down.
The weak continuation bet
Somebody makes a raise preflop. You call (perhaps others call as well).
Now that person makes a small, weak-looking bet. This is
called a continuation bet.
A player usually follows up a preflop raise with a bet on the flop, because checking looks way too weak.
Often if you raise a weak continuation bet, you will get that player to fold. (Don't discount any other players in your calculations though!)
The suspiciously cheap bet
This, of all poker tells, should warn you that a player is tricky and
cannot be trusted to act the same way each time.
You call a raise preflop and the flop comes big: say, A K Q. Suddenly, your aggressive opponent bets small, perhaps a third of the pot. The important thing to note is that he DOES bet. He's not checking a monster, he's wise enough to bet into that pot. For sure, he has a big pair, two pair or the nut straight.
Whenever a bet seems too cheap, given the previous action, you should be wary. Note that this is different from the weak continuation bet, which is usually a small fraction of the pot rather than a decent part of it.
The stop an aggressor bet
You have made a preflop raise with a solid, but not amazing hand (AKs
or a medium pair, say). You get a caller who's out of position (in
front of the dealer button and so first to act on the flop). You're
expecting him to check, but instead, he makes a small bet.
This is a sneaky bet. It usually means the player wants to see the turn cheaply. He's betting to represent strength that he doesn't have, in the hope that you'll call behind him. Usually a raise will chase him off.
There are many more poker tells online. I will write more on this subject soon! For now, sign up to PokerPrayer!, our eZine, so we can keep you informed with new articles on the site.
