How to Read Poker Players’ Tells

When you watch professional card players on TV, it sometimes seems that they possess super-natural powers – it’s as if they can guess which cards their opponents are holding at any given time.  In fact, what they are doing is reading poker tells.

What are poker tells? 

No matter the situation, people tend to give out involuntary signals to their surroundings. These signals can represent a range of emotions, from boredom to excitement to fear.

Often these signals undermine the feeling a person is trying to openly convey to his or her surroundings.  In a game of poker these minute, automatic signals are known as ‘tells’.

How to read poker players and spot poker tells 

In their groundbreaking book ‘Read ‘Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent’s Guide to Decoding Poker Tells‘, pro players Phil Hellmuth and Joe Navarro offer astute insights on how to read poker players.  According to their theory, it all comes down to one fundamental question: Fight or Flight?

As we all learned in grade school, our prehistoric ancestors encountered life-threatening dangers on a daily basis.  Prehistoric man had to decide whether to flee or to confront danger.

Though today’s world is quite different than that of prehistoric man, the physical remnants of these ‘fight or flight’ responses remain. Traces of these instincts are apparent in all poker tells.

How to read poker players – flight poker tells 

Here are some things players may instinctively do if they are thinking of leaving a hand:

Pull back from the Texas Holdem poker table
Look away from the table or an opponent
Turn slightly away from the table or an opponent
Positioning the feet in a ‘running’ stance'

How to read poker players – fight poker tells 

Here are behaviors players may exhibit when they have a strong hand:

Glancing at the chips
Moving towards the Texas Holdem poker table or the cards
Positioning the feet in a ‘battle’ stance
Dilated pupils, dry lips and other ‘adrenalin rush’ signals

Remember: reading poker tells is far from an exact science.  The same twitch can go both ways – some players glance at their chips when they feel weak, while others turn away form the Texas Holdem poker table when they feel strong.  The above lists are general guidelines for poker tells.  Use these tips to avoid giving out the same poker tells to your opponents.

Online Texas Holdem poker tells 

The “fight or flight” theory works best when you’re face-to-face with your opponents. But what about online Texas Holdem poker tells?  This question brings us to another prominent theory on how to read poker players.

In his classic book, Caro’s Book of Tells, Mike Caro formulated what is now known as ‘the golden rule of poker tells’: “Strong when weak, weak when strong.” Caro claims that players will act weak when they are strong, and display strength when they are actually weak.

Though the golden rule was originally formulated for live games, it can easily be applied to online Texas Holdem poker.>

You shouldn’t rule out online poker tells just because an icon or avatar has replaced the physical presence of your opponent. Players still give out valuable information, no matter what platform they play on.

Online poker tells can be divided into three categories:

1)  Speed of action

2)  Strength of action

3)  Player characteristics

Online Texas Holdem poker tells – Speed of action 

Instant raise– This play is usually very strong, since it indicates the player has checked the “bet/raise all” button. However, depending on the player’s past actions, you should never rule out a bluff.

Instant call–This is usually a weak call, since the player may have checked the “call/fold” option. Try a raise and you may win the pot straight away.

Check/small raise after a long pause - If a player takes a long pause he is trying to look weak. Following Caro’s golden rule, this may mean he is holding a strong hand.

Big raise after a long pause– This may be a monster hand. A player is trying to look weak with a long pause, yet he or she decides to raise an a big way.  Obviously, always keep your eyes open for a bluff.

Online Texas Holdem poker tells – Strength of action 

Placing a very small bet relative to the pot – Always consider the position from which the bet was made.  A late position small bet may be an attempt to steal a proportionally big pot.  From early position this could mean a monster hand trying to look weak.

Placing a very big bet – In no limit games this is sometimes a giveaway for a weak hand trying to look very strong.  Study the players around you and decide if they are aggressive in nature or just trying to look strong with bad cards.

Online Texas Holdem poker tells – Player characteristics 

Both an online and offline Texas Holdem game can share the most basic and potent of all poker tells: Players have patterns that they constantly fall into, behaviors that they repeat again and again. Is your opponent tight?  Passive?  Aggressive?  A frequent raiser?  A loose raiser? A re-raiser?

To win a Texas Holdem game, you must constantly follow your opponents’ behaviors and attach the correct meaning to their actions. Associating an opponent’s actions with his state of mind is the definition of how to read poker players’ tells. 

It’s also the definition of how to win a Texas Holdem game.