Mastering poker includes mastering your body language. Right? Poker is the game based on the availability of information. As poker is a game of human interaction, we sometimes receive clues from other players, based on changes in their playing patterns or their physical manner, which points to the strength or weakness of their hand. These are termed as “poker tells.”
A poker player gains a benefit if he notices and learns the meaning of his opponents’ tell. Poker ‘tell’ is particularly unintentional, unconscious and reliable. At times, online poker players fake a ‘tell’ to confuse their challengers. After all, poker and deception are not enemies.
Two Forms of Poker Tells
Poker Tells come in two forms:
Playing patterns
Physical tells
Playing patterns are the most reliable poker tells. By observing the way a poker player plays, you will have more info and will be able to judge better. Playing patterns will be your main tells.
Physical tells, numerous of which are exaggerated in television and movies, are fun.
Spotting Apt Poker Tells is Tough
What makes tells tough to apply is the way they differ from player to player. For instance, a player might toss his chips into the pot with strength, and then leave his hands out near the action. For most players this implies a big hand, for other players, it is a bluff. Numerous poker tells are false, numerous are conflicting, and several are just downright undependable. There is no magic to it.
As you make scrutiny a habit, you will learn to filter through these several tells and observe that the first tell is very often real, and the shortest tell is the most dependable. Most long, drawn out tells are fake, set up to baffle the players. We have all seen a movie tell as a player makes a screwed up face of annoyance and then bets!
The universal rule is that weakness normally means strength, and strength normally means weakness. But, you must choose how much weight to offer a tell at any given instant. If you make learning tells fun, it will be an ever-changing, exciting part of your poker game and your skill.
Practice is the Key
Practice is the key to learn reading any tell. Learning the poker tells is more fun if you learn a couple of them every time you play poker game. For an instance, one night at a game you pick a player and observe his energy levels. While he won’t go from almost comatose to sitting bolt straight in his seat, most poker players do shuffle around in their chair and sit straight when they have a good hand, or in any case a hand they mean to play. Notice everyone’s posture and it will be a habit and you will ‘train’ yourself to be alert at the table.
Happy playing!!