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Online Poker » Poker Strategy » Psychological » Tells

Online Poker Tells. Since you can’t physically see your opponents when playing online, the physical tells we’ve mentioned are clearly not going to apply. Remember though, that betting patterns are the most reliable of all poker tells. Look out for changes in a player’s betting pattern and observe their timing. Indications: One of the classic online poker tells is the extreme delay in making a bet or especially a raise. While online players often react slowly due to the popularity of playing multiple tables, if a player breaks from his usual betting time by delaying and then making a big raise it usually indicates strength. By consistently combining tells with one’s ability to make reads, extract value and manipulate opponents, a player may significantly increase his/her long-term expectation at the tables. And that’s what it’s all about! List of Online Poker Tells 1.

A minimum check-raise is not the most reliable online poker tell, as it can be an indication of both, a big hand and a bluff. Reliability: High Hand Strength: About 50/50 between a big hand or a bluff. Indications: This is certainly one of those online poker tells that requires your knowledge about the specific player. Here are some poker tips on how to read poker players and poker tellsFREE online poker training video - http://tinyurl.com/PokerProTraining.

When playing live poker there will be times when you happen to notice that some players display certain physical characteristics when playing certain hands, good or bad. These characteristics can be as subtle as a wrinkle of the forehead or twitch of the eyebrow to something more drastic such as a player's voice trembling when they make a raise or the way they reach for their chips before it is their turn to act.

In poker, these physical characteristics are referred to as 'tells.' Tells can provide you with the information you need to make a decision regardless of the strength of your cards or board texture. In other words, tells can save you money or can make you money depending on your observations of your opponents. If they twitch when they have pocket aces, then you know to fold your hand pre-flop. If they start chatting you up when they're trying to run a bluff, you know you can re-raise them to push them off their hand.

Ok, so by now you are probably wondering what this has to do with playing online poker since physical tells don't mean squat. You would be right of course. Since there isn't any physical interaction whatsoever, it is impossible to pick up any physical tells online.

Although that may be true, there are common characteristics that many players display online that can be easy to notice if you were to pay close enough attention. These tells like any live tells can save you time and give you that needed edge to dominate your opponents. But instead of making your figure them out on your own, we have displayed the top online tells for you below.

Top Poker Tells

-Check-Fold Box: The check-fold box is there for a player's convenience so they don't have to wait until it's their turn to check their hand, it will happen automatically. So if an opponent has checked their hand within a blink of an eye when it became their turn to act, this would possibly indicate that they have no interest in their hand, meaning that it was weak.

-Call Box: In a similar fashion as the check-fold box, the call box is there so players don't have to wait until it was their turn to call, it would just automatically happen. When you notice a player automatically call a hand this should raise a warning flag. Why didn't they raise if they had a good hand? Why not fold if their hand was no good. Sound like they may be on a draw doesn't it?

-Insta-Raise Box: Like the other two options above, there is a convenient box for players to check if they want to raise their hand no matter what. This will typically indicate that they have a super strong hand. Be sure to tread with caution here.

-Think a Long Time Before Calling: Generally when a player thinks a long time before they make a call they are trying to display weakness as if they are unsure whether to continue in the hand or not. In most cases, they are much stronger than what they let on.

-Think a Long Time Before Checking: When a player takes a long time to think before checking, they want you to think that they are trying to suck you in thus scaring you into not betting. In these cases, these players generally have weak hands.1.

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-Chatting in Chat Box: Take note of each player's tendencies as far as how social each player is. If there is a player who is normally rather talkative and then all of a sudden quiets down, it could be a sign that they are focusing on their hand (strong). On the other hand, if a player who is normally quiet peps up all of a sudden, then maybe they are feeling more comfortable at the table or maybe more comfortable with their hand?

-Odd Bet Sizes: If there is a pot of $23 and an opponent bets $5, this will generally signify that they have a hand they like, but not that much. They will commonly have a small pocket pair or maybe A-K and bricked the flop.

In other cases, a small bet like this can be a total bluff attempt thinking that if you missed you would fold. These types of bets are normally on wet boards with lots of draws.

When To Bluff In Poker

Lastly, in rare cases these bets can be used to lure players in when the villain has a strong hand. This is pretty rare though and from personal experience, it doesn't happen as often as the first two suggestions.

It should be noted that odd over bets can also signify many of the same scenarios listed above.

Top Online Poker Tells

While these may be common online poker tells it is important to remember that just because you notice a player displaying these characteristics doesn't mean that this player is what you think he is, be it weak or strong. Any well-versed poker player can switch gears or use information like this to fool players who rely too strongly on it. Always be sure to observe opponents and take notes before basing decisions solely on reads alone.

Here is another real hand from the virtual felt, played by real people, who as we will see, each really wanted to win the money in the middle. The game is $0.50/$1.00 (100NL), played six-handed, and the hand illustrates an example of how not to bluff when playing online poker.

Bluffing and Bluff Catching

An inexperienced player with 200 big blinds ($200) raises from the cutoff, then the big blind three-bets to $10. Our inexperienced player calls and the flop comes .

Some things never change in poker, and the need to tell a convincing story when bluffing is one of them. For educational purposes, I think it is best that we reveal up front the big blind has . With $19.50 in the pot after the rake has been taken out, he continues for $6. The player in the cutoff responds by raising to $13.

Now here is the first part of the cutoff's story about which the player holding the jacks might be suspicious. After all, this board should favor him given how he was the one three-betting. It is very hard for the cutoff to have a hand that want to go to the felt right away for 200 big blinds.

Speaking of, does a near-minimum raise strike one as something a player holding hands like or might be interested in here, in position? Some things are suspicious — that's all I am getting at. But let's see how the story continues.

An Innocent Turn

The big blind, with two jacks, calls the raise to $13, the price being too good for him not to continue. The turn brings the . Our hero with two jacks checks, and with $44 in the pot the cutoff player checks behind.

Now if the cutoff had one of the hands he was representing on the flop — , , , — wouldn't he want to keep building a pot? After all, there is a lot of money behind. Also worth noticing is the fact that while there was no flush draw on the flop, there is one now, making it fairly strange that the cutoff would slow down.

One kind of hand that makes some sense is a wheel draw that paired the turn and chickened out of bluffing — namely or . One would expect (a turned straight) to bet the turn for the same reasons or would.

A River Blank, and Some Action

The river is the , making the board .

The second deuce on the board further diminishes the chances of the cutoff having or . Our big blind with jacks has one play, to check, and that's what he does. And sure enough, the cutoff fires — a big pot-sized bet of $44.

The Story Being Told

The story being told... is an incoherent one.

Say the cutoff did make a small value raise on the flop — for instance, with a hand like — targeting the exact type of hand the big blind has. For what reason would the cutoff choose this river sizing? And for what reason would he think he's ahead enough to bet so huge?

Meanwhile the big value hands have already been ruled out for reasons outlined above. So one would expect either a medium value bet or a check from hands that needs to be worried about.

What Not to Do

Online Poker Bluff Tells Friends

A heroic call came from the big blind here, checking and calling the pot-sized bet on the scary ace-high board. He really wanted to win this pot. And it turns out, the cutoff really wanted to win it as well, maybe even more so, because the cutoff showed up with the complete air ball — .

Now actually, this is the kind of hand that we should expect to see in such a situation, one that saw the small continuation bet size on the flop as weak and tried to win a pot the player had no right to claim. It is okay to attack weakness in cash games such as this, but having some equity — a gutshot, a backdoor flush draw, something — will improve any flop bluff.

Trying to win pots is all well and good, but a consistent story still has to be told by the bluffer, just as it has always been in poker. A strong hand on the flop would have bet the turn for some size and a medium hand that raised the flop would not have bombed the river. So the cutoff either turned quads and wanted his opponent to catch up, or he has a bluff.

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The big blind sorted all those pieces of the story out and was rewarded with a big 135-big blind pot in the end.

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