"Poker tells" is a term that is used in poker to refer to any unintentional information a player gives away regarding the strength of their hand or their intentions. First and foremost, the biggest indicators of a player's hand are his personal tendencies. People fall into patterns, and only by paying attention and remembering their actions will you come to understand how they play. Once you do this, you can often guess their online poker hand with great accuracy, based simply off of how they've previously reacted to certain situations.

Especially when playing online poker, hand strength can be hard to determine, since there's little to go on except for betting patterns and your opponents' timing. That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind when trying to figure your opponents out. Specifically, how fast they act can be an indicator of their strength or their intentions.

First, let's talk about pauses. Contrary to what many discussions of this nature say, people who consistently take a long pause before acting indicate absolutely nothing concrete. They could be thinking - or pretending to think. Sometimes it only means that they're making dinner, or eating, and need to run back to the computer or clean their hands before acting. Maybe the phone rang, or maybe they're explaining what they're about to do to a watching friend. (I've done all of these things while playing online poker, and never once did I not know what was going on at my table.)

There are so many things that could be happening outside of your knowledge that abnormally long pauses just aren't that reliable. I've read many other authors' opinions about how long pauses mean that people aren't focused on the game, but it's all too possible that they just weren't focused at that exact instant. Also, the availability of 'hand history" tabs on all the poker sites makes it easy to look up any important action a player might have missed, so even if some is busy they can brush up quickly on how people have been playing.

But I will say this about long hesitations: most players are reluctant to make risky bluffs after a very long pause, because they're afraid of their opponents getting curious. However, as this information has gotten out there, the more savvy players have begun pausing before making big bluffs to throw off their educated opponents as to the strength of their online poker hand.

As with anything in poker, when considering timing, your opponent's tendencies are what are most important. When someone has previously displayed a fast or natural pattern to their timing, the smaller hesitations can mean a great deal, especially towards the end of a hand, when they're more likely to be seated and focused on the game. For instance, when a player has been acting within two seconds every betting round, but then suddenly takes three or four seconds to act, this usually shows a genuine moment of thought that they had to put into their action.

If they're betting, it means they probably had to think about what amount to bet. Unfortunately, this means they could either have either been thinking about how to extract the most out of their winning hand, or just been trying to figure out how much to bet so you'll fold to their garbage. If they're checking, it might meant they're feigning thought to get you to ease off, but it might also meant they were going to bet their set but decided to slow-play it at the last second. Or maybe they have top pair with a weak kicker, and have decided to be careful - but aren't planning on going anywhere. Many people think that a check after a long pause means weakness and recommend bluffing, but again, many people do think this and therefore are now adjusting to exploit the rule. The more these things get talked about, the less value they have.

Deciphering hesitations is only useful when a player also sometimes displays a lack of hesitation. For instance, if you've noticed that a particularly aggressive player always bets fast on the turn after showing strength on the flop, even when the card hasn't helped him or could potentially be scary, a sudden pause on the turn from this player means he probably just hit his hand and has unexpectedly had to change his plan from "betting to take the pot" to "winning the most money."

The lack of a pause is generally more telling than a pause. While pauses can be intentionally and unintentionally faked, and can mean a few different things, the lack of a pause can't be faked, and it always means the same thing: your opponent already knew what he was going to do.

For example, let's say you raised before the flop, and checked the flop in position against a single caller. If that player bets out lightning fast on the turn, it means he probably was going for the check-raise on the flop and remained primed for action when you disappointed him by not betting. Look for this player to have at least top pair.

Even a fraction of a moment's hesitation here, however, could mean that your opponent has had time to process your perceived weakness and has made an informed decision to come out betting - and is now betting fast to scare you. However, players capable of this type of sudden aggression are rare and will always be obvious in their tactics by displaying aggressive tendencies throughout their game. And they will hesitate, even if only barely. With these types of players, the difference between "hesitation' and "no hesitation" could be measured in milliseconds, but believe it or not, it's something I've picked up a great sense for when figuring out an opponent's online poker hand: if they try to bet very quickly, but have that tiny hesitation, I can be fairly sure they've just decided to take the pot down.

Most players who have hit the turn suddenly, or those who had something like middle pair on the flop, need to think for a moment to decide whether or not they should bet and how much. Even with a middling top pair, or an overpair on a tiny board, most players would have to pause for at least a moment to consider whether or not you're trying to trap them with a big hand, or if the turn card helped you.

I wrote this article mainly to contradict some of the "common knowledge" surrounding online poker tells. There's just no universal timing indicators anymore; everyone is different. When considering your opponents, it's always most important to determine what they usually do in order to spot when they veer from that pattern If a player always bets fast, a moment of thought means something has changed. It could mean he hit a card, or it could mean he just expected you to fold and now has to reconsider his bluff. If a player always bets big hands after taking time, but then starts barreling through a pot like he's got to rush to the bathroom, this could mean he's trying to scare you out - but it could also mean he's got to go to the bathroom! Or it could be that he's aware of his own slowness, and it trying to entice a call by reversing this tell.

And that's why it's so important to pay attention to your opponents. The main point here is that tells, especially those online, should be considered carefully. After all, they're only part of the equation, and become harder to decipher as they become more well-known, so it's a mistake to completely change your mind or ignore the facts just because you think you've picked something up. Use them, but use them as what they are: a piece of the puzzle - not the whole thing.

Sam @ Power Poker Course.




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