Reading Online Poker Tells

A tell is a change from the normal pattern of a poker player's play and behavior which may reveal the strength or weakness of their hand. Part of what makes poker so popular is the fact that you can read and exploit the tells of your opponents.

While tells are obviously evident in a live game, where you can watch the physical actions of your opponent and read their gestures and facial expressions, many newer players don't realize that there  are a host of tells that you can pick up on in online poker as well, despite the fact that you cannot actually see your opponent. Paying careful attention to a player's betting patterns and play speed and detecting deviations from the normal pattern can reveal a lot about how a player views their current hand.

Keep in mind that the following online poker tells are generalizations, and while they will help you in the long run, they may not be true for every player and situation. The more you play, the more you will get a feel for your opponents, and are able to read them on a case-by-case basis.

Timing Tells

Sometimes, when playing online poker, you start to get a sense that a particular player at your table is really strong, or quite weak, but you can't really put your finger on why you have that feeling. Often times this can be due to the speed in which they play. There are various tells that can be found relating to the amount of time it takes a player to act during a poker hand and you can learn a lot of valuable information just by judging the amount of time it takes for an opponent to act.

As with the other kinds of tells which we will discuss, these timing tells are of course not universal. Some people may just play more slowly or quickly than others, and better players may even try to send false tells by varying their gameplay speed.

However, the speed in which a player plays is more often than not just a part of their personality, and not something that they ever think about or try to correct. If you watch and play enough online poker, you will see that even professionals have timing tells. Being able to read some of these tells can be a great tool in determining whether to bet big, or fold a hand that you thought would be a sure winner.

Long Waits before Checking

In online poker, 15 seconds is a lot of time. When you see a player take more than 15 seconds to act, and then they choose to do nothing other than check, it is usually a sign of a weak hand, and most likely a bad player as well.

In this case, the player has a weak or semi-weak hand, such as an inside straight draw, and has taken a lot of time to determine their course of action, in the end deciding to do nothing at all.

The other reason for this could be that the player is simple distracted, and doing something else. Many recreational players play online poker while also surfing the internet, watching TV, eating dinner, or even sitting at their desk at work. They are not fully focused on the game, and take a lot of time to do anything. If they had a great hand, they would have pounced on it, but the long wait and check signals that they are lazy, and don't really care about the hand.

Better and more experienced players may occasionally take a slightly longer time than normal to check due to the fact that they may be checking pot-odds calculators or other poker guides in order to determine the proper course of action. However, they still usually act within about 10 seconds, and this does not happen during most of the hands they play.

There are couple of other instances to note regarding long waits which include a player who takes more than 15 seconds to bet or raise, indicating that they took a long time to figure out their bet and likely do not bet often, showing that they value their hand very strongly and it's usually a good idea to avoid betting into them.

The other time when a long wait may be helpful to you is when an experienced player who is multi-tabling takes a long time to act. In this case, that player may have strong hands on other tables he or she is playing, and may not value this particular hand that much.

Instant Check or Call

An opponent who calls or checks nearly instantaneously on every street during a hand shows that they are likely very anxious to reach showdown.

In this instance, it's generally not a good idea to bet into that player and try to force them to fold, as they most likely feel that they have a strong hand which has the high probability of winning at showdown. It may be smart to attempt a value bet when you hold a hand such as middle pair in an attempt to get them to fold.

Also, when a player in the BB checks instantly multiple times after an un-raised pre-flop pot, they may not hold anything of value, and just want the hand to be done as soon as possible. Any sort of value bet could cause them to fold.

Immediately Posting the Big Blind

When you first sit down at a new table or return from a break, almost all poker clients give you the option to play immediately by posting the big blind, no matter what your table position, or waiting for the big blind to naturally move around the table to you.

Every time that you post a big blind out of position, you are costing yourself money, as you will have to post the blinds again in just a few hands. Experienced players know this; beginners and bad players do not. A player who immediately posts the big blind out of position is big sign that that player is certainly not a professional, and is most likely a fairly weak player.

Chatting

Professional online poker players do not play for fun, and they certainly aren't sitting at the poker table to chat and make new friends. Chat is distracting, and professionals and high-level amateurs don't do anything which could distract them from the game.

Always take a look at who is chatting and what they are saying, and if you combine that information with a player's playing style, you can quickly get an idea of who at the table is a pro, and who is a fish.

Multi-Tabling

It can generally be said that a player who plays more tables at once is a better player than those only playing at one or two tables. Professional players can usually be found playing anywhere from 4 to 16 tables at a time. You can find out how many tables one of your opponents is sitting out by searching for him or her through your poker client.

Beginners, bad players, and recreational players are normally found at fewer than 4 tables, as that is more than enough for them as they need to concentrate harder on each and every hand.

However, be advised that just because a player is playing 8 or more tables at once, that does not mean they are a seasoned veteran. There is a crop of online players who take advantage of rakeback opportunities and VIP programs by grinding many tables at once in order to earn VIP points, rakeback, and rewards. These players are incredibly tight, and will only ever play the strongest of hands. They also tend to not be that good, and have a hard time concentrating on that many tables. They usually don't have the time or the ability to make good decisions on marginal or semi-strong hands, and you can definitely exploit that to your advantage.