Online Poker Tells

Do you have a VIRTUAL TELL?

Careful…how you click that mouse, you may be giving your hand away. Just because you're not sitting next to other players at the table doesn't mean you cannot read them and they cannot read you. A common misconception of online poker is that it removes the aspect of reading your opponents and looking for clues to determine what they hold.

When playing online, it is very easy to fall into a rhythm. Think about it, the game is set up to move as quickly as possible. There are preset buttons to fold, call or raise. The cards come flying out of the dealer's hand and each player is expected to act fast. But when you're playing online this fast past rhythm could be doing more than keeping the game moving smoothly. Fall into too much of a pattern and you just may develop a VIRTUAL TELL.

A VIRTUAL TELL is just like any other tell. A subconscious action that you perform in a given situation that gives other players at the table clues to what you're holding. Do you constantly use the automatic raise feature with a strong hand or always take longer to call with a weaker hand? If so, you may be giving your hand away to a sharp player looking to exploit your weakness.

The ways you can give your hand away online are as numerous as tells in a live poker room. It could be something as obvious as overusing the automatic features. Or a more subtle tell such as being overly anxious to bet a strong hand. Constantly quick to click the bet key when you have a good hand? If so, you may be costing yourself money. Players will pick up on your betting rhythms and learn to fold when you come out quickly firing bets or raises.

The key to successfully avoiding a VIRTUAL TELL is to keep a constant broken rhythm to your play. Be aware that you should sometimes wait to call, utilize all the time given to you by the game. Other times, call quickly, but be sure to mix it up in order to ensure no one gets a read on your hand by your betting pattern.

Remember poker is a constant game of cat and mouse. Playing online is no different. In order to be successful you'll need to keep your opponents guessing and try your best not to fall into a rhythm with your play. Be aware of the VIRTUAL TELLS outlined in this article as well as any other patterns you think you may fall into. Don't just try to avoid these traps for yourself, actively look for others who may have a betting pattern. If you can spot someone else's VIRTUAL TELL you will have a valuable advantage and will tremendously increase your overall profits.
 

When you read most any poker book or strategy site, there's a lot about "tells" - how to read your opponent to determine the strength or weakness of a player's hand. There's even books about nothing but tells! How someone breathes, facial ticks, the vein in their neck - all sorts of tells that will allow a good poker player to eat a weak player's lunch day after day. Well, there's one big problem with online poker - there are NO tells! Or are there?

Actually there are. While there may not be as many, and they may not be as obvious - there are certainly online tells you can look for, and know to try not to do yourself. Since I there's not much currently written about online poker tells, I kind of just catch them as I play more and more online poker. If you know of some good online tells please email me.

1. Position Raises
This is not really so much a tell, just a move. If you are in the small or big blind - and everyone folds - until the person just to your right finally raises - don't necessarily assume he's got a great hand. It's a good move often used to steal blinds. To make sure - raise back.

2. Slow Play
While I don't see people do this as much with medium - strong hands, I do often see them all of a sudden start to think long and hard about placing their bet - or raise. Unless this person is just a slow player or experiencing connection troubles, it's quite likely an acting job. Paying attention to people's betting rhythms at all times will help with this call.

3. Really Fast Play
Most online poker sites allow a person to pre-select their next move rather than click when it's their turn. You can check boxes like "check / fold", "fold", "call anything", and "raise anything"... Basically the way you can tell someone has used one of these check box buttons rather than actually wait their turn is it passes by them lightening fast. Basically faster than most could humanly click the button. There are two scenarios when someone has pre-checked their next bet move you should watch for...

"check / fold" - basically when someone clicks this they are saying, "unless I can play for free, I'm folding". Go ahead and bet to thin them from the callers.

"raise anything" - if someone is using this button they are either really loose AND lazy, or feel they have the nuts. So - watch out for that. This one you won't see nearly as often as the "check / fold" button.

4. Chatting about their hand
Drunk poker players are kings of thinking little sayings like "finally, here we go", or "thank you dealer"... and actually thinking it scares the other players into believing they've got a hand. Well, I see players do the same via chat online every so often, and just like the others, they are generally full of #@$@#$.