By Carl “The Dean” Sampson
This is a very interesting topic and one that has been analyzed by many people. The simple fact of the matter is that whenever you play live poker, you will if you are skilled enough be able to pick up on certain tells by certain players. Many professional players who ply their trade in a bricks and mortar poker environment base their entire game on spotting and exploiting tells. It is also the opinion of many people that playing poker in an online environment eliminates being able to pick up on these tells, they are in a word….wrong! This is simply because there are all kinds of tells in poker and they do not necessarily have to be visual either.
Whenever you look for tells in an online game or a live game, all you are essentially doing is looking for different things. Most of the tells that players give off in an online game can also be picked up in a live game but the same is not true in reverse. So just what kind of tells can be picked up by glaring at the screen?
Tells in the chat box!
I know many online players who have their chat box function turned off and they are making a big mistake in my opinion. You can in fact gather an awful lot of information simply by watching what other players are typing into the box. Recently I have been on Pokerloco and at the low-stakes especially, the number of chat box tells have been quite numerous. For instance, any player who types something like “you moron, you didn’t have odds there for that play†or if they say something sarcastic like “you are really world class†after a particularly nasty bad beat, this could indicate a player who is hurting emotionally from the loss and could possibly be tilting or nearing the stage where they might tilt.
I have seen many instances where players have typed statements like this and then started raising and re-raising the next few pots. Players who chat and talk constantly will likely know the person who they are talking to either on a personal level or by playing with them constantly. Most players who do this are revealing that they are in fact recreational players who are just there to have a bit of relaxation and fun and the level of their chat will indicate this. Of course even no chat at all is a big fat tell. When a player is not chatting at all then this could be a tell and it could reveal many things. Possibly the player has their chat function turned off or maybe they are playing several tables at the same time and simply do not have the time to chat. Another possible explanation is that they are serious players and do not want to enter into any chat of any kind.
Just like any bricks and mortar tell, it takes several instances to verify that a tell is accurate or not. If you notice a particular player who is not chatting then you cannot pin any one possible explanation to it until you are in receipt of further data. Sometimes, players who chat frequently may be signaling that they are not using trackers like Poker Office Poker Office.” Any serious player would be more than likely searching for data on their HUD and not wasting time chatting even if it was for a strategic purpose.
Tells based on a players stack size!
I have always found this tell to be very reliable. Whenever a new player sits down on my table and buys in for the minimum then I will automatically peg them as being tight or passive. Very rarely are they loose and aggressive, their minimum buy in has been made because of factors like not wanting to risk too much money at anyone time.
This trait marks them as a cautious type of person before they have even played a hand. If they are weak and cautious then they will likely limp and call into many pots and this will become rapidly apparent. If they have a bit more about them and know things like good and bad starting hands and are patient and disciplined enough to wait for them then this is also a tell. These players will wait for a big hand and play it very aggressively when they get it. But the fact remains that their minimum buy in was based on caution and fear and this is a tell in itself and especially when it comes to potentially stealing from these players.
Time duration tells!
By this I mean the length of time that it takes for a player to make their play. If someone raises and it gets around to a player and their fold is instant then this is likely to be a player who has already clicked the “fold to a bet/raise†button. Of course knowing that someone intended to fold after the event is not of much use to us but it does in fact indicate a player who is prone to using pre-action buttons.
If you were to repeat this scenario and it was bet and called by two opponents and their call was visibly instant on a board of Ah-9c-8c then this could be an indication that this player is on a draw and is receiving the proper pot odds to call and has clicked the “call any bet†button. Tells like these can be a great help and especially in games like limit hold’em where players are frequently receiving the correct pot odds to draw to hands. Taking this a stage further and if a raise was instant then this would indicate that the raiser was raising with a powerful hand and his action was something of a no brainer otherwise they would have needed at least a few seconds of thinking time.
If you raised before the flop with AK and it was called and then a re-raise was instantaneous then a fold could be in order here and especially in a game like No Limit Hold’em. Another possible tell when it comes to betting is when a player stalls for a long time as if apparently thinking and then either calls the bet or raises. This is an adaptation of the acting weak but actually is strong ploy only this time it is being executed in an online game. Of course because you cannot physically see the players in online poker, it is perfectly possible that this player could be distracted by something at home or because they are multi-tabling. As I stated earlier, for any tell to be accurate either live or online then it has to be observed at least several times.
Carl “The Dean†Sampson can be found on poker loco these days at www.pokerloco.com/thedean
