Common Poker Tells - How to Read People in Poker
October 30, 2024 Giovanni Angioni
Contributor Calum Grant Editor & Live 🌜 Reporter
Understanding poker tells is crucial in
Texas Hold'em but is often overlooked by new players, who could benefit from poker
🌜 coaching.
These tells or subtle cues, whether deliberate or unconscious, offer valuable
insights into an opponent's hand. Self-awareness is key before 🌜 decoding others, as
recognizing personal tells prepares players to interpret and use others' cues
effectively.
What is a Tell in Poker?
A 🌜 poker tell refers to any physical, verbal, or
behavioral cue exhibited by a player during a game, inadvertently revealing information
🌜 about the strength of their hand. These cues can be conscious or unconscious gestures,
such as changes in posture, speech 🌜 patterns, eye movements, or betting behaviors.
Tells
may provide opponents with hints about a player's confidence in and the quality of
🌜 their hand. Some tells can give you information on whether an opponent is bluffing or
whether they have a really 🌜 strong poker hand.
Mastering the interpretation of these
subtle signals allows astute players to gain insights into their opponents' likely
actions, 🌜 enhancing decision-making and strategic advantage in the dynamic game of
poker.
Top 5 Most Common Poker Tells
Poker tells come in all 🌜 sorts of shapes and (bet)
sizes, and below are some examples of the most common tells in poker. Make sure 🌜 to read
the explanations provided to get a better understanding of how they work.
Eye
Contact
Time to Act
Handling of Chips/Cards
Attentiveness
Table Talk
In 🌜 poker, eye
contact can display a player's confidence or discomfort. Avoiding eye contact might
signal weakness or nervousness, while prolonged 🌜 stares might be an attempt to
intimidate or mislead opponents.
Poker pro Daniel Negreanu is also a big proponent of
eye 🌜 contact being a useful tell. If a player likes a flop, for example, their eyes will
quickly glance down at 🌜 their chips, which is an indicator that they like their hand and
want to build up the pot.
Time to Act
The 🌜 time a player takes to act reflects
decision-making. Quick decisions might signal a strong hand or eagerness to bet,
whereas 🌜 prolonged delays could suggest uncertainty or strategic planning for a
bluff.
Handling of Chips/Cards
Subtle actions, like nervous chip shuffling or
hesitation 🌜 when handling cards, can indicate insecurity or a lack of confidence.
Conversely, swift and controlled movements often accompany a strong
🌜 hand.
Attentiveness
Players' attention towards the game speaks volumes. Lack of focus
or distractibility might reveal disinterest, potentially signalling a weaker hand.
🌜 Conversely, intense focus can indicate a strong hand or a player plotting their next
move.
Table Talk
Verbal clues in poker conversations 🌜 provide valuable insights.
Offering excessive information might signal nervousness or an attempt to mislead
opponents. Silence, or specific topics, may 🌜 imply a player's confidence or discomfort
with their hand. Identifying and decoding these verbal cues adds depth to understanding
opponents' 🌜 strategies and hands.
How to Hide/Avoid Giving off Your Tells
In poker, it's
super important to keep a straight face and not 🌜 give away any hints about your cards.
But it's just as key to watch others closely to figure out what 🌜 they might have. Hiding
your own clues and catching theirs gives you a big edge in the game. It's like 🌜 a secret
weapon for winning at poker.
Be Aware of How You Act When Betting
It's crucial to pay
attention to your 🌜 betting actions in poker because they might give away the strength of
your hand. Staying consistent in your moves helps 🌜 keep your strategy under wraps. Being
mindful of your betting style prevents opponents from getting hints and helps you stay
🌜 ahead in the game.
Bad players may put chips into the pot in a certain way when they
have a strong 🌜 hand and then do it differently when they're bluffing.
Be Aware of Timing
Tells
Knowing about timing tells in poker matters a 🌜 lot because how fast or slow
someone makes their moves gives hints about their cards. Quick actions might show
they're 🌜 confident, while waiting could mean they're unsure.
If you find that you're
acting faster when you're strong, you should just wait 🌜 a few more moments before making
your action.
Avoid ‘Acting’ in a Hand
It's best not to overdo actions when playing
poker 🌜 because pretending too much might show others what you're up to. If you act too
much, it can make things 🌜 obvious and let opponents figure out information about your
cards or plans, making it harder to win.
A famous example is 🌜 Hollywood Star Matt Damon
at the World Series of Poker. The acting skills on display are more like what you'd 🌜 see
at a local theatre rather than from someone with multiple Academy Awards.
Try to be
Stoic
Remaining stoic in poker is 🌜 crucial as it prevents revealing emotions that could
give opponents insights into your hand or strategy. A calm, composed demeanour 🌜 conceals
intentions, making it harder for others to predict your moves, maintaining a strategic
advantage and control over the game.
Final 🌜 Thoughts
These five types of tells all come
from live poker, although you should know that tells can sometimes be worth 🌜 seeking out
when playing real money online poker, too. For some examples, see Nathan Williams'
article titled "7 Ways to 🌜 Get Better Reads When Playing Online Poker."
Some players
give off tells unwittingly, but there are also players who will deliberately 🌜 "act" at
the table in an effort to deceive opponents with "false tells." That means with all of
the tells 🌜 discussed above, you might encounter players exhibiting the tell in an effort
to indicate the opposite of what it normally 🌜 might signify.
For instance, a player
might hold his cards in a way that makes it look like he's about to 🌜 fold, encouraging
you to bet, but then stay in the hand and put in a raise. Also, take heed of 🌜 that point
about looking for patterns first before jumping to conclusions about an apparent
tell.
Have you seen the player making 🌜 eye contact on multiple occasions, then showing
strong hands each time? That might make the eye contact tell more reliable 🌜 the next
time you see it. But if there's no pattern against which to compare the action, be
careful not 🌜 to overvalue the tell.
Finally, especially for new players, it's probably
much better to pay attention to betting patterns than behavioral 🌜 ones — those tend to
be much more dependable indicators of players' relative hand strength.
Poker Tells
FAQs
What are tells in 🌜 poker? Poker tells are changes in a player's behaviour that can
give information about the player's hand strength. How can 🌜 you tell a poker tell? Some
common poker tales, like the ones described extensively on this page, are easy to
🌜 identify. Just follow the instructions in the article to learn how. Others might be
more subtle. That's why you will 🌜 need to observe your opponents over a long period of
time and understand what their usual reactions to poker hands 🌜 are and what can be
identified as a poker tell. How can you tell if someone is bluffing in poker? 🌜 Eye
contact, trembling hands, chip glances, phone glances, and table talk are only a few of
the most common poker 🌜 tells in poker. Knowing how to read poker players and spot any of
these poker tells will help you understand 🌜 if someone is bluffing (i.e. misrepresenting
the hand) or not. Are there online poker tells? Yes, although online poker tells 🌜 are
different from live poker ones. Online poker tells revolves around factors like bet
sizing, the time spent sizing a 🌜 bet, the behaviour at the table, and more. Read this
handy collection of online poker tips for more detailed information 🌜 on how to become a
better online poker player What's the best book to learn more about poker tells? You
🌜 can learn more about poker tells and how to read poker players with the Caro's Book of
Poker Tells by 🌜 Mike Caro, Exploiting Poker Tells by Zachary Elwood, and Verbal Poker
Tells again by Zachary Elwood.
Sharelines A discussion of five 🌜 common "tells" -- both
physical and verbal -- that turn up at the poker tables.
Making eye contact, acting
quickly, trembling 🌜 hands, table talk -- what do these poker "tells" mean?
