Online Poker Tells

Poker 'tells' are the clues that players unwittingly give away to each other about their situation in the game i.e. whether or not they have a good hand of cards. This could be a habit or some other kind of physical activity which would be a dead giveaway to those smart enough to be watching.

Some people for example can't help continually looking at their cards when they have a good hand almost as if they can't believe their own luck!

Poker tells are often unrecognized by the player himself but by them, other players may gain an insight into the strength or weakness of a player's hand. An experienced poker player will learn to recognize poker tells and to use them to his or her advantage. However here we are discussing online poker and so the question you may be asking yourself is whether or not you have any possibility of recognizing tells when playing poker online. The answer is a resounding yes!

Here are some of the tells which you should learn to recognize when playing online poker:

1. Players Who Check
Normally you will find that players who have a weak hand will tend to check because it allows them to stay in the game for longer without it costing more. If a player checks at the flop and you make a bet then you will probably successfully bluff them out of the game. The main reason for this is course that they will not be prepared to call a bet on a poor hand when they have so little invested in the hand at this early stage.

2. Players Who Check Then Raise
This is a tell that you should really look out for because if you don't spot it, it could cost you a lot of money! Basically this is when a player at the table initially checks but then at the next round decides to raise and then continues to raise. This is a sure sign that they have a good hand and that they were only initially checking to try and get people to bet in the game.

3. Players Who Stall before Betting or Raising
This is a fairly obvious type of psychology in which a player tries to pull others in to make bets. This player will tend to sit staring at their hand trying to give the impression that they don't know what to do, of course the implication of this is that they don't have a very good hand when in reality they do!

These are just some of the tells you will learn to recognize even when playing online poker. Learn to be vigilant and keep a close watch on the actions of the players seated around the table even if you can't actually see them online. There is still much to learn and to observe and the more you do this, the better poker player you will become.

It's In The Chips!

One man who is famous for his study of tells is Mike Caro, the 'Mad Genius of Poker' (above).
In his book: 'Caro's Book of Poker Tells', he describes almost 60 key tells and ranks them by category.

One of the most interesting tells of the book is Caro's discovery that the way the players stack their chips is a great indication as to the players likely style of play. Players who make neat piles of their chips are likely to play more conservatively whereas players who pile up their chips haphazardly in front of them are more likely to be sloppy undisciplined players. Caro makes the point that this tell is particularly valuable because it takes place in between poker hands when players are likely to be off their guard!