Online poker tells thread

[NFI]

Playing online poker is harder in terms of reading a player compared to live poker. You can not physically see the player, their eyes, body movement or hear their voices for tells. Here are some things I have noticed while playing the game of poker online and I hope they help you during your game.

Player actions - Watch for players that have been playing quickly and then all of a sudden stall or have been playing slowly and then suddenly comes out of the box firing. This will usually mean they have something good in their hand as they have changed tempo to how they normally act in a hand.

Chat boxes can be great for saying nh, wd, nc etc but you can also be abused and also distract you from your game play. You may be called a "donkey" or "cant believe you played that" or many other taunts. Most of the time this is to let out frustration but it can also be used to irritate and intimidate you with show boating like "One time", "I knew you were a donk", "thanks for your chips" etc anything to get you riled up and off the purpose of the game and that is to win. Do not fall into these traps and most rooms you can turn off the chat if needed.

Betting patterns of poker players is probably the most important factor when evaluating an online poker player. Watching the betting, checking and raising patterns are crucial to knowing what a player has. Take notes of how a player is betting (pot size, half pot etc) and then take note of the hand that player holds at the end even if you have to call on the river knowing you are beat to get that information. Poker players are just that whether live or online and we all have habits and routines that can give us away. Capitalise on these routines and put your opponent on a hand based on how they attack a pot based on past hands. eg Did they overbet when bluffing, value bet when holding the nuts etc

Feel free to add anything else that you may have noticed.

[daave13]

Knowing tells I guess comes with exp and also I think its more relevant in ring games. If you know a players habits then of course you can pick up tells but there are also very minor tells that can be picked up against players you haven't played against.

Bet sizing, speed of the bet, and there bets relative to how you would have played the hand they are trying to represent are all relevant.

E.g. A particular hand last week where I had 88 in the SB playing Rush $2/$4

P1 raises to $12 MP I flat flop is Ac 4h 6c

I check P1 bets $20 in $28 pot. I call

Turn is the 2c P1 bets again just over half pot I call , river is a Jack of spades I check he then bets I think about $128 into a $200 dollar pot.

Now my thought process was that if he had an ace he would have checked the turn when the flush hit and its very likely he is 3barreling with air. Same as if the Jack hit he would have checked the river. P1 was representing a flush or had zero showdown value that was about it so I called and he had K10 and I won the pot.

First step to getting a poker tell: What I do is evaluate the type of player I think they are. all you have to do is see them play one hand (doesnt have to be to showdown) and then I colour code them. For me blue means passive, orange is player with quite a few leaks, yellow is extremely terrible player usually big call stations, Red is opposite of passive makes 3bets and plays capable of 3barrel bluffing, Purple is regs not any known leaks dont want to get involved with unless you have a strong hand.

2nd step: Habits- Anything you picked up unsual when playing against them like if they min3bet or always bet pot or always 2barrel etc.

3rd: Using the first two steps with your experience thinking what hand they could have.

I am not saying this is going to work for everyone but it works for me I've guessed peoples exact hands many times I'm no pro but this year I have a +EV I still have alot to work on.

[rockape]

go with your gut , trust your intuition

[inittowinit30]

i have picked up about 5 online tells it is very hard butno matter what a human on a computer or in person is readable the top players can do it well even amatures have there moments lol no pun intended but fact is fact lol

[buzzmania]

nothing worse than getting stuck in a routine and telling on yourself,especially with the more seasoned players.