-- Common poker saying, as spoken by Matt Damon in Rounders and originally attributed
to Amarillo Slim
In live games, reading your opponents is much easier than it is online. Professionals wear
sunglasses to hide any trace of emotion in their eyes. They bring I-pods and portable CD
players to listen to and minimize distractions. They spend countless hours looking for
tell-tale signs of a player’s strengths and weaknesses.
When you play online, you don’t have the advantage of looking into the other players’
eyes to get a read on their cards. This makes moves like blu ng signi cantly more
precarious. It can be done, and we’ll cover that in a separate section, but you can also get
some tells from your fellow players in the online poker room.
Several of the tells listed here are useful in both online and o ine poker. However, since
we lack the ability to read opponents’ physical expressions, these are the tells that are
available to us making them that much more important.
First, let us de ne a “tell.” A “tell” is a habitual action by another player that gives you a
clue as to what he is holding. In o ine poker, a widening of the eyes is often a “tell” of a
very strong hand. That is one reason you see so many poker players wearing sunglasses
at the table. It’s not because of the bright Las Vegas lights.
Let’s take a look at some of the tells that are exhibited by online players and what they
mean.
Speed of Play
Every online poker room has a set number of seconds that each player has to respond
before he is declared either all-in or folded. Sometimes, due to internet issues, a player's
actions will almost always be slow and laggy. However, often, the speed of play can be a
good “tell.”
Typically, a quick bet is a sign of weakness, and a delayed action is a sign of strength, as
the player is calculating his strategy with what he perceives to be a huge hand. Watch
how much time it takes the other players to make their action, and mentally make a note
of it. If you get a chance to see their cards at showdown, see if you can determine what
they “slow bet” with and what they “fast bet” with.
Now would be a good time to think about our own play and whether or not we exhibit
these tells by our speed of play. A good strategy is to try and take the same amount of
time for every action, so that observant players cannot draw any conclusions from your
own speed of play.
Use of Check Boxes/Auto PlaysOnline Poker Winning Strategies Revealed # 28