Online Poker Tips: Poker Tells

Online Poker, Poker Tells
August 15 2008

There are not a lot of ways to pick up tells on players when you’re playing online. You can’t see if they’re shaking, or if their hearts are pounding through their shirts. The only real way to try and establish a tell on a player is to watch how they bet. A good percentage of players don’t consider their reaction time in their betting habits. Many will repeat habits in certain situations, and if you can start to recognize when they repeat something, you can use it to your advantage.

A common one is when a player check-raises you after a draw card comes off on the turn or river. You have the lead with top pair, but a third club came off on the turn. They check and you bet, then instantly they raise you. If you have been watching the player, you can recall when they did that before. And if they had the goods then, they most likely have the goods now. If the opposite was true, then they are trying to bluff you off the hand.

Another common tell to watch out for is the long pause before a river bet. This player almost always has a big hand. They are trying to make it appear that they have a tough decision to make whether or not to bet. You’re supposed to think that their hand is medium strength, and that maybe you should call. Don’t call these bets without a really good hand.

 

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