Online Poker Tells

A poker ‘tell’ is any sort of reaction, behaviour or habit that gives an opponent information about your hand. In live poker one of the key skills most good players have is the ability to read their opponents and pick up on these tells. When playing online tells are obviously harder to pick up due to not being able to see your opponent.

However there are some online poker tells that you can learn and that can help to give you a read on your opponent’s hand.

Long wait then check

This will generally show your opponent is weak. They are trying to make you think they are thinking about how much to bet when really they don’t have much of a hand.

Long wait the bet/raise

This shows strength. You opponent will be trying to make you believe they are thinking about a check when really they are holding a strong hand. They will also be thinking about the best line to play their hand and how much to bet for value.

Instant bet/check

Every poker site has action tabs you can hit so that when its your turn you will automatically produce the desired action. If you see an instant check it shows weakness. The player didn’t like his hand enough to know that no matter happened before them they were checking. In contrast the instant bet or raise shows immense strength because your opponent is happy to put money into the pot without taking into account previous actions.

Above are the online poker tells I have found to be most accurate over my years of playing. They must be used with caution; I cannot say they are going to totally accurate every time. Other factors can lead to you being mislead, such as, multi tabling, people will generally take longer over their actions or they have popped to make a cup of tea for example. Use them cautiously and remember the best way to extract money from an opponent is to learn their betting patterns.