A little bit about live tells

This is a horribly underappreciated aspect of live poker. It’s astonishing how some obvious tells can be given off and no one else at the table notices. Even little things like watching the players while the cards are dealt, this is amongst other things a great way to know who’s playing the players and who’s playing the cards just by seeing who’s looking at the cards and who’s watching the players.

I wrote up something about live tells a while ago but deleted it for whatever reason. The recent thread that’s been posted on online tells reminded me of this so I figure I’ll share what little I know about live tells.
There are a lot of people who know a lot more than me, but it’s amazing how many know less (like I said, this side of poker is very underappreciated). None of the following should you take as absolutely correct, I’ve studied this stuff quite a bit and put it into practice a lot, it works for me but maybe it won’t for you. I’m just sharing it because maybe it will be helpful, and maybe someone can add more to this topic.
Also, I do realise that most of you guys play online and not live but most players will over time play a bit of online and a bit of live, so I think it’s useful for everyone to be aware of this stuff.

First, some rules that I abide by:

1: Against a strong player I don’t try to give off false tells (leads them into a guessing game: “does that mean he has the hand, or is he faking it, or does he think I’ll think he’s faking it?” I want to be leading their decisions not having them guessing). Instead I try to give off no tells. Never make eye contact when they’re making a big decision and try to never move much in this situation. Similarly, I don’t pick up many tells from strong players. If he is probably aware of the tell and it can be controlled, I don’t trust it for a second.

2: Some tells are enough for me to put my entire stack in the middle, others are barely enough to assist my decision making. Some are more reliable than others.

3: Always establish a baseline. This means that you have to learn how your opponent looks and reacts in normal conditions and under stressful conditions, you need to know what he looks like when he’s bluffing and when he’s telling the truth. Usually he’ll bet a good hand and bluff a bad one into someone else before you get into a hand with him anyway, but you need to be careful if you haven’t established a baseline on him yet and you get into a big pot.

4: Never look at just one thing. Look at everything at once. You won’t be able to play a game of poker just looking at someone’s pupils (a lot of the time, he won’t react at all) but maybe he is giving off other tells.


Here are some tells that are very useful:

Pupil dilation:

This is one of the best. Pupil dilation is very difficult to control, some people can control it but the vast majority can’t. This makes it a very reliable tell. Quite simply the pupils shrink when they don’t like what they see and they expand when they do like it. Watch them as the player looks at their hole cards and as the flop, turn and river are dealt. This combined with some common sense can tell you what a player holds. Unlike most tells which can be faked, this has two different weaknesses: Sunglasses and brown eyes. Sunglasses are obvious, they hide the pupils. Brown eyes are a nuisance too though; try watching a man’s pupils from across the poker table when he has dark brown eyes.

Personally I don’t wear sunglasses to a poker table. Just because I think it makes you look like an idiot wearing sunglasses indoors but it’d be a good practical idea.
Pupil dilation is enough for me to shove my entire stack in, it can be a major part of my read (even overriding everything else, in some circumstances). I do however like to have seen the player go through previous hands and have watched his pupils reacting throughout them, to help establish a baseline as to how he reacts.

Tense fingers:

Chip tricks are wonderful things. Watch that guy rifle a stack of 20 chips perfectly all day and then watch those fingers become clumsy when he’s under pressure. He’ll often stop halfway through his chip tricks as he feels his fingers tensing up and sensing an impending telltale fumble.
This tell is usually reliable, but I’ve never made a big call/raise based on this alone. As always, I like to have seen how he reacts to multiple circumstances before relying on this tell.

Feet direction:

This one is rare, but pure gold. Okay so you can’t just look under the table at where someone’s feet are pointing, but occasionally people stand up after making an all in raise. Look which direction their feet are pointing, if they’re pointed directly at the pot then they think they’re ahead (probably near nuts), if they’re pointed on an angle away from the table then they’re very likely to be weak. This is because a person’s feet point towards what they like/want, an example is when talking to someone you like compared to someone you don’t like, in the first instance your feet will normally be pointed directly towards them and in the second your feet will be on an angle, usually towards a door/exit.

Smiling opponent:

I hate smiling opponents. I really do.
A broad grin usually means you’re in trouble. It’s very rare that you’re ahead here. Against a new player then a broad grin can mean a bluff that he thinks you can probably see though but against an experienced player a broad grin is just confidence, it occurs during conversation (either they’re talking to you, trying to talk you into the call – sometimes by talking you out of the call – or they’re talking to someone else), if they have a broad grin then you know they’re feeling good. Why? Try smiling when you’re under pressure.
Even when you’re not under pressure you can’t use the same muscles to fake a smile as when you’re actually happy, a smile isn’t easy to fake. Try doing it convincingly while you have 90 tense facial muscles.
Now a corner of the mouth smirk... that one troubles me greatly. When just the corner of the mouth is lifted in a smile, it’s hard to tell if it’s a hand or not. It can either be intentional, because the player thinks it will make them look confident. Or it can be unintentional because the player can’t completely hide their smile. My advice is to ignore it, or flip a coin, it’s about as good as trying to make sense of it.

“I think I want to bet.... check”:

Think about it, if you want to bet, you’re going to bet. You’re not going to count out chips and then check because you’ve just told everyone what you’re planning to do, you might be undecided but you’ll end up throwing the chips out because you’ve just told everyone you’re thinking about betting and if they have that information anyway, you’re going to bet. If someone counts chips and checks, bet!
This works a ridiculous percentage of the time. It’s wonderful for stealing small pots.

Not wanting to let go:

I’ve only seen this a couple of times, but when someone places their chips out for a bet, and they hold onto them for a couple of seconds before letting go. This should tell you that they’re afraid of losing them. Doesn’t mean you should bluff, they may be willing to call in desperation to protect their chips. It does mean that they don’t think they’re ahead.
I’ll never go on this tell alone, for a big decision, but when it does come up I will use it if I think it was genuine (can obviously be faked easily but as most people are ignorant, it’s not often faked).

Neck tension:

Your neck doesn’t stay relaxed very easy. When you get stressed, your upper back/shoulders and neck tense up. Often if your head is tilted on an angle then it will straighten up without you noticing. This tell I’ll use but won’t shove based on this alone, I need this and a lot of extra info before I’ll go on it. It is reliable, but it only means that someone is stressed and the absence of it just means that they’re not stressed (maybe they just take the bad situation well or have already resigned to having lost the hand), this is why it’s important to establish a baseline of their behaviour. Watch them for many hands and see how they react.

Thumb sucking:

I love this tell. Even just for the pure humour of seeing it. Seriously, grown men suck their thumbs at the poker table. Most people just don’t see it.
When you see someone holding their hands up near their mouth (usually hands grasped together) with their thumb sticking out the back and just wedged between their lips (I know it sounds stupid, but trust me it happens). This is a guy who is nervous as hell and wants this whole situation to just work itself out, he feels like he is in over his head. Don’t necessarily try to bluff him, he’ll call with a draw (in desperation) but know that he’s almost certainly weak and you only need a marginal hand.
I have found this tell to be very reliable, because seriously who’s going to stick their thumb in their mouth for the off chance that someone interprets it as a tell?



Here are the tells that you DON’T want to use:

Shaky hands:

A man’s hands can shake because he is nervous/excited, because he is cold, because he is stressed (his mind may not be on the game or he may be thinking about his losses/winnings and not his hand), maybe his hands just naturally shake. Whatever the cause for it in this particular situation it’s rarely a good indicator, there are too many causes. It will cost you money, ignore it.

Deep breathing/Breath holding:

This is an awesome tell, a new player will find it impossible not to breathe deeply when he has the nuts and hold his breath when he’s bluffing. Someone who has been around a bit however will reverse this tell, it’s so easy to fake. It’s too easy to fake to be reliable. On the new guy who has never played poker before, use this tell, on a regular if you see this tell then he’s probably faking it and go with the opposite.

Posture:

You’ll often read that a player sitting bolt upright is likely to have a hand and one who’s laid back probably doesn’t have much, usually it’s the opposite, but sometimes it’s true. Watch it for anything irregular, but don’t trust it. Players like to fake everything, their posture is no different.