Online Poker doesn't compare to play at Casinos
Internet tells all relate to the speed at which an opponent bets. Before
discussing tells, it is important to understand the two ways a player can act on
the Internet when it is his turn. The most common way is to select one of the
several buttons that appears on your screen when it is your turn to act. The
other way is to pre-select your action using the “act in turn” buttons. For
example, you can select check/fold or bet/raise before the action ever gets to
you. When you use these “act in turn” buttons, your action will occur almost
instantaneously when it is your turn.
Let’s look at some of the tells you can find depending on how fast or slow your
opponent acts. One note of caution when using these types of tells. If your
opponent is playing two tables, a lot of these tells do not work since the
timing of his actions could be thrown off.
A delay followed by a check often indicates weakness : Most opponents who wait a
longer time than normal and then check, are trying to indicate strength by
“thinking” about betting; however, they generally want you to check so that they
can get a free card. If your opponent was going to check-raise, he would
generally check at a normal speed and then raise.
A delay followed by a bet often indicates strength : An opponent who waits a
longer time than normal and then bets usually has a strong hand. In this case,
he is trying to indicate weakness by “thinking” a long time to lure you into
calling.
An instantaneous bet or raise on the turn or river usually indicates strength :
Most players who bet or raise instantaneously using the “act in turn” buttons on
the turn or river generally have strong hands. I believe these types of plays
are meant to bully you into calling, so he dares you to call with his
instantaneous raise. Don’t let this bullying strategy work against you.
Generally an instantaneous action on the turn or river indicates a very strong
hand.
This tell has varying degrees of reliability depending on the street. On the
river, an instantaneous raise almost always means the nuts or a hand close to
it. On the turn, it generally indicates a very strong hand, although some
players will occasionally raise instantaneously with the intention of checking
the river. An instantaneous raise preflop also generally indicates a strong
hand, especially from early to middle position; however, if they are in late
position and are raising a late position player, it is difficult to make
generalizations since they might just be bullying their opponent.
I have found it difficult to generalize about players who bet or raise
instantaneously on the flop. Some players raise with good hands, while others
raise with weak hands trying to buy a free card. This is especially true with
preflop raisers who try to buy a free card with overcards.
An instantaneous check usually indicates weakness Many players use the
check/fold button when they plan on folding their hand to any bet. This is
especially true with players who are playing two tables. There are two
situations where you can use this information to your advantage. Let’s say you
are in last position. The first player checks and the next two players
instantaneously check. Since the two middle players probably don’t have
anything, a bluff might be successful against the lone opponent who checked
early.
Another situation occurs when you are the player who checks early. If your
opponents instantaneously check behind you, you might have a bluffing
opportunity on the next card. These tells work best at the larger sites such as
Paradise Poker and PartyPoker where use of this button is common. Many players
at these sites play two games at once and use the check/fold button to quickly
move back and forth between hands.
Two notes of caution related to this tell. Although not very common, be careful
against some tricky players who might use the check/call button to slow play
their hands. Second, there is a fine line between instantaneous checking and
checking quickly. Using the auto check/fold button before another player has
acted means that they would have folded if their opponent had bet. This is very
different than someone who checks very quickly once it is his turn to act. This
leads us into our next tell.
A quick check usually indicates weakness, but beware if the player check-raises
A quick check can indicate weakness also, especially when there are several
players playing the hand; however, if a player checks quickly and then raises,
be very careful! When a player check-raises, the quick check was probably an
attempt to indicate weakness so that you would bet into his strong hand.
Remember that all of these tells are generalizations. They work best against
unknown opponents since you don’t have any other information to go by. Once you
have played with a player for a while, observe their betting patterns and then
record what happens when they don’t follow their usual pattern.
As a final note, try not to give tells about your own play to your opponents.
There are two ways to do this. One way is to simply bet at the same speed
throughout every hand. Another way is to randomly change the speed of your
betting. For example, if the last card shown is a red card, you act after two
seconds, and if it is a black card, you act after four seconds. This strategy
will confuse your more observant opponents who are looking for tells and can’t
find any.
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