Internet Poker Tells

As poker in any form tends to be a game of information, whenever you are able to gain more information than your opponents you stand to profit. One way of gaining additional information is the use of “tells”. Tells are something that an opponent does to give away the strength of his or her hand. Finding and correctly deciphering tells that give away information about your opponents is an inexact science, to say the least. This is true in live play, but it is even more factual when you are playing poker online. Because it is so hard to correctly read a situation 100% of the time, you must concentrate on solid overall play with the additional information garnered from a tell occasionally helping you make a better decision than you would otherwise make.

The first rule in picking up tells is that you must pay attention to your opponents to pick up tendencies. Some opponents will pause when faced with a difficult decision, but good players will pause when they have a strong hand at times to try to show weakness. So it is important to learn which opponents are good enough to try to fool you. This is the biggest tell while playing poker online. Most players, especially weak ones, will pause when faced with a difficult decision, which shows that their hand may not be very strong.

Another common tell online is a player that acts very quickly when they are on a bluff. By acting quickly they hope to show a great deal of strength. Just like the tell mentioned above though, solid players may do just the opposite and act quickly sometimes when they have a very strong hand. The better the competition, the less likely you will be able to rely on tells to help your decisions.

Some players chat a great deal while playing, while others never take part in the conversations using the chat box. Occasionally you may be able to pick up tells from these conversations, but most of the time they are very unreliable. For example, one of the best online poker players that I know constantly chats while at the table and appears to be a complete moron, but it is all part of his game. Players who don’t pay very close attention tend to think he is a poor player after reading his chat and don’t play against him the same way they would if they knew how good he was. This gives him a decided advantage at the table.

You will see a player who has taken a bad beat at times express anger in the chat box. This can be an indication that this player is on tilt and you can take advantage of the situation. But even this is not 100%, as some players can display anger in chat without changing their game.

Keep an eye out for possible tells while playing poker online, but always remember that the best way to use the information is in combination with solid play.

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