Understanding Poker Tells
There has been a lot written on the subject of poker tells and serious poker players can take advantage of books, web sites, and even real life courses that will teach them how to read poker tells. Some of these courses are ran by people with psychology backgrounds – including law enforcement people who have been trained to read people, and know when they are lying.
Poker tells are gestures, actions, and expressions that give away when a person is bluffing. Some people blush, shake, or otherwise quite clearly indicate when they are not telling the whole truth. Others have much smaller things that they do – perhaps raising a hand to cover their mouth, playing with their hair, or even just sitting differently.
Many people subconsciously change their body language depending on their mood. Someone very confident may sit back in their chair and have a much more open posture. Someone worried may be much more ‘stiff’ and this is hard to hide when you are trying to pretend to be confident.
Poker tells are relevant in all kinds of games, from buddy poker to a poker tournament. You can also apply some of the principles to online poker. Naturally, body language is not something you can read online – unless perhaps you are playing live dealer poker with the players all using web cams. There are other tells though, similar to the ones you would see in casino poker.
If a player is responding quickly, then pauses before making a move in a specific hand, consider why. It could be that they were distracted, but it could also mean they were thinking carefully about the move.
If someone is normally very chatty, but becomes quiet – are they concentrating on that hand for some reason? Likewise, if a quite person becomes very talkative, they could be attempting to give a false indication of confidence.
Be mindful of your own tells. Try to train yourself to keep a stoic impression, and pay attention to your habits when you are nervous and stressed. If you can rid yourself of any habits you have, you will be harder to read, and it will serve you well in your poker games.
