Thursday, 28 August 2008


Poker Tells

Habits, behaviors, and physical reactions displayed.


Carefully observing your cards while playing poker is vital but not enough to increase your chance of winning. Most experts say that you also have to keep a watchful eye on your opponents for subtle clues about the state of their hands or games. This is the main idea behind poker tells. These are habits, behaviors, and physical reactions displayed by the other players which give you information regarding their hands. Poker tells can be observed from amateur to expert players; the only difference is the latter tends to display them more covertly. To help you get started, here are a few common tells which you can look out for during your next game.   

You can see the first tell once a player sits at a poker table. Look at how he piles up his stack of chips. A person who has a poorly organized stack usually plays loosely. An individual who plays tight, on the other hand, would scrupulously arrange his stacks, sometimes even at a perfect angle.  

The next tell can be seen during the actual game itself. Once all the players have been dealt their own cards, get a glance at their faces. Facial expression shows a lot about the hand a person currently has. If you see confidence or happiness in the face of your opponent, he may have a strong hand. But if discontent is written in his face, he may have a poor hand. Upon realizing how other people observe their expressions, some players have opted to wear dark hats and slightly stoop down during poker games. You can also do the said concealing methods if you wish or just wear your poker face.

However, given all these tells, you may wonder: "What if I prefer online poker?" Since you will not be able to directly see your opponents in an online poker game, you can monitor other characteristics which other players may exhibit. For example, a person who gloats and tells everyone through the chat box about how he revels on his recent win may be a long-term loser. Such an individual can most likely be an easy target for bluffing as he would hate to face another loss again.

In addition, a player that has been banned from using the chat box shows you another online poker tell. When you see an icon or a sign beside the name of a player which indicates that he cannot chat, this one may be immature and may have a tendency to play recklessly below his ability or "tilt." You should also watch for players who seem to be know-it-alls and give others ineffective and inaccurate lectures on poker. Those who act like scientists but are proven to be wrong are either first-timers, temporary opponents, or players whom you can actually exploit in time.

As a final note, you must be aware that although most of these things can provide you with clues regarding the type of opponent you have and the possible moves he would make, they might not always be applicable in all situations. Adding to this the fact that most professional poker players intentionally display these habits and characteristics to mislead the other participants. You should therefore be careful in trusting these signs and basing your strategy on them.