Poker Psychology - Tells

Even good poker players give a tell once in a while, and an expert player picks that tell. Tells are divided into two groups: voluntary and involuntary. By spotting these tells you can figure out how weak or strong your opponent’s hand is.

Examples:

1. When busy, most of the players tighten up. If a player is eating, talking with a friend, speaking on the phone, or handling his I-pod, when he is in the pot, he is usually strong. If he raises, I’d stay in the pot only if I had a premium hand.

2. Intimidation signs – when a player tries to intimidate, I usually know he has a weak hand. For example: when he shouts: “I raise”, when he leans on the table, bets very quickly, or tosses his chips on the table.

3. Weakness signs – when a player tries to show that he is weak, I usually know he has a great hand. For example: if he puts his chips neatly and quietly into the pot, leans backward, or if he bets slowly.

4. Be careful of the speech – when a player gives a speech like: “a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do”, before he raises or goes all in, I know that he usually has a very strong hand.

5. If a player puts the bigger chips into the pot ($100 for example) when he has 4 chips of $25, he is usually strong. People like their bigger chips and put them on the table when they think they will come back to them.

6. Double-checking for the suit – when a flop has three cards of the same suit, and a player double-checks his cards, he will most likely have one of that suit and is checking to see which card it was.

7. A quick call means a drawing hand most of the time.

To summarize, the rules of “the tells” go as follows: when a player acts weak he is strong and when he act strong he is weak. When spotting these “tells,” try to disappoint your opponent – if he plays weak while holding a great hand, fold or check. If he acts strong while holding a weak hand, go ahead and bet or raise. Just remember two things:
A. You gain the most reliable information about a player by watching his betting patterns rather than poker tells.
B. Experts will trick you with reversed tells if they think you are paying attention.