Online Poker Tells

Here are several “tells” listed that are useful in both online and offline poker. However, since we lack the ability to read opponents physical expressions, these tells have become much more important.First, lets define a “tell.” A “tell” is an action by another player that gives you a clue as to what he is holding. In offline poker, a widening of the eyes is often a “tell” of a very strong hand. That is one reason many poker players wear sunglasses at the table.

Opponents Fold/Flop Percentage

While you cannot mark this number exactly, you can get over the course of several games a sense of whether or not the player folds trash hands or if he is stays in almost every pot. This can help you determine the strength of a players overall game. If he folds alot of cards, beware. If he stays in almost every pot, you can probably run over him if you play good cards.

Chat Box

Just like in offline tables, the chatting of a player could be an obvious tell. Generally, if a player who is chatting all of a sudden gets quiet, means he is playing a set of good cards, but if a player is betting and becomes antagonistic in the chat box, he may be bluffing and hoping his show of “confidence” will help him in folding you off the table. When a player is using lots of abusive language is probably emotionally unable to play good poker until calms down.

Speed of Play

Every online poker room has a number of seconds that each player needs to respond before he is declared folded, often, the speed of play can be a good “tell.”, a quick bet is a sign of weakness, and a delayed action is a sign of strength, as the player is calculating his strategy with what he percieves to be a huge hand. Watch how much time it takes the other players to make their action, If you get a chance to see their cards at showdown, see if you can determine what the “slow bet” and what “fast bet” ended with.

Now think about our own play and whether or not we exhibit these tells by our speed of play. A good strategy is to try and take the same amount of time for every action, so that observant players cannot draw any conclusions from your own speed of play.

Use of Check Boxes/Auto Plays

If you have seen any of the online poker rooms, you will find that they use check boxes such as “fold” “raise any”, or “call any”. You can tell when a player has used a check box, because his turn to bet comes within matter on micro-seconds. When a player has checked “raise any” it should be obvious that he has a strong hand, the fact that a player feels strong enough about a hand to make a decision before even seeing the actions of the players before him, should be a “tell” as to what that player is holding. If a player uses the check box to “check” then you can probably surmise that his hand is weak. If a player uses the check box to “call any”, then maybe we can assume that he has a good hand but not that strong, but is definitely not ready to fold.