Tells

Tells
by Joseph Roberts

"Tells" in poker refer to those signs a player may give off that communicate information he or she otherwise would not want to be sharing with his or her opponents. For example, the player who reaches for his chips as soon as the flop comes down may be inadvertently “telling” the table he likes his hand and plans to bet, even if it isn’t his turn to act.

Entire books have been written about various tells in Poker. One of the more well-known tells is the one in which a player acts the opposite of how he or she really feels about the hand, a tell that is sometimes referred to as “strong means weak/weak means strong.”

For example, let’s say we are watching a game of no-limit Texas hold'em in which a player raises before the flop and gets one caller. The flop comes down Q-J-J and the player who raised makes a continuation bet. His opponent then exhales dramatically as if to suggest he doesn’t like the flop, but makes the call anyway. Many times such a display is a deliberate, almost obvious attempt to try to throw the raiser off, the caller suggesting that he is weak when really he holds a jack. By the same token, the player might act as though he’s excited by the flop, sitting forward in his chair and quickly reraising the continuation bet, this time feigning strength when in fact he is weak.

In live games, there are a few areas of particular interest when it comes to the business of tells, including hand movements, the eyes, and breathing patterns. Also of importance is what a player says (or doesn’t say) during a hand. Some players love to talk during hands, pushing whatever Poker rules are in place at that particular poker room in order to gather as much information as possible.

However, in Online poker, tells operate much differently. Some might argue that when you log onto PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker, you needn’t worry about tells anymore. But in fact, you can give off tells online -- and detect others giving off tells -- just as you might in a live game. They are just going to be different kinds of tells.

One online poker "tell" is the amount of time a player takes to make a decision. Again, you might be able to discern the “strong means weak/weak means strong” tell happening here, as well. Sometimes players will bet very quickly as if to communicate strength (when in fact they are weak), or might deliberate longer than usual before acting in order to indicate weakness (when in fact they are strong). The trick is to recognize patterns in the way your opponents time their bets, then watch for deviations from those routines and try to figure out what they might mean.

The chatbox is another place where online players sometimes give off tells about their play. The player who likes to recite odds and probabilities in the chat box is probably a "by the book"-type player who doesn’t normally make so-called “incorrect” plays. These players become much easier to play against after they’ve revealed themselves with their chatbox "tells."

Whether live or online, tells are an important part of poker that help make the game interesting -- and prove that poker is about much more than just the cards.