Global Sports: Reading Opponents: Texas Holdem Poker Tells

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Reading Opponents: Texas Holdem Poker Tells

By Bruno Chauvet

Poker tells are one of the most important aspects of poker and they help to separate poker from other games of luck. When playing poker, it is crucial to observe your opponents in order to pick up on any clues they make inadvertently give away. Poker tells can include any piece of information gathered including voluntary and involuntary movements, verbal cues and behavioural patterns. The best part about tells is that every single poker player has them, and if you observe enough hands closely enough, you will eventually find them. Be careful though, some players try to give off reverse tells to trap you.

The Eyes Reading a player starts with their eyes. Watch how they view the world and you will gain insight into their thoughts. An opponent who glances at their chips immediately after seeing the flop is thinking about betting and likely has a monster. Some players will stare at their hole cards longer than normal when they have a big hand. When the flop comes down and the player stares at the flop as if staring straight through it, they have often missed.

The Hole Cards Double checking the hole cards usually means a weak hand. People don't often double check big pairs because they remember what it was the first time. Looking away and uninterested after seeing the hole cards is a dead give away for strength. Squeezing out the second hole card sometimes means the first card seen is an ace. Checking the hole cards on a flop that is all the same suited usually implies someone doesn't have the flush.

Patterns in Betting In poker, one thing that is often true is that strong means weak and weak means strong. Any player that forcefully shove chips into the middle looking aggressive is on a bluff. The reverse is also true.

Stacking Chips A player that is tight and conservative will often have a neat stack whereas a maniac will have sloppy chip stacks. Betting with large chips can often be a bluff whereas using small denominations is a value bet. Any player that is still stacking chips and decides to play the hand has a reasonable hand.

Speaking at the table If an opponent is having a conversation during a poker hand and his talk is all of the place, as if his mind is on something else, it usually means he is not too confident in his hand. This correlates to a weak poker hand. Conversely, if a player is talking smoothly while in a hand, it means he is not overly concerned about the hand he is playing. This is because he feels comfortable and usually means a big hand.

The more you observe at the table, the more tells you can pick up and the better player you will become.

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