Timing tells

What do you guys/gals think of timing tells. Do you gain much from them?

To me when someone takes a long time to make a decision, it means they can't figure out what to do or they hate the board.

I used this recently in a tournament. It was on the bubble and I had a good stack but not huge. I raised from MP with 99 and was figuring out what I was going to do if Players CO-BB pushed. I decided I was going to fold if any of them except the shortstack in the SB shoved over.

When it got to the BB, he didn't fold immediately, so I thought, OK, I'll give it up.

But he took so long to do it, I knew he was weak. I mean if he has AK or KK or something, the raise gets to you and you can't wait to click all-in or raise. So I decided to call and, sure enough, he had a smaller pair (66).

I've also used reverse-timing tells. One time I had AA and reraised an UTG raiser. The flop came down all raggy and he checked to me. I used my time bank before doing anything and then just shoved all-in, hoping to make it look like a hapless bricked AK shove. Sure enough, he called with 99.

Definitely good tells.
I have done that same time bank thing when i had AA. Opponent called with middle pair and said something like. "Nicely played i got confused."

I dont think that a long decision time is a very reliable tell.

The reason is there are many factors.

1) the hand could, as you say, be margional and the villian is having a tough time calling.

2) the hand could be very strong and the villian is simply trying to figure out the best way to play it.

3) the villian may be trying some 'online tell' bluff

4) the phone may have rang or someone is at the door and the villian simply be occupied for a minute.

5) the villian may be multi tabling andbe making another big decision on another table.

So out of the five possibilities above, only 1 is due to weakness and 2 of them are due to influences away from the table in question.

Therefore delays should not be given too much creedence.

However the opposite of a delay is usually a very reliable tell.

If a player responds very quickly.. a snap call, then non of the above can apply.

The player is focused on the table, and he has a hand of reasonable strength which requires no thinking time.

So you can (at that point) put him on a made hand. Thwn work back and most likely you can actually figure out what that hand is because this is such a strong tell.

Be very careful when doing this. Very frequently, this will come back to hurt you. If I notice that someone may be making decisions on this, I'll sometimes sit there for a minute before acting, even if I know exactly what I want to do, just to throw the person's timing off a bit. Likewise, if I'm trying to bluff, I'll often do it very quickly. Someone can make up their mind quickly, but that doesn't mean they have one hand or another.

and I was wrong. I used to try to count to three before any decision, so as to not give anything away, the way I do normally in a live game. But lately I have been experimenting, and the quick re-raise really works if you are trying to buy a pot, or if you sense weakness in your opponent. If you are in doubt, jsut try it out. Take a little longer than normal to fold hands, and then go ahead and re-raise as quickly as you can, and you will see that you can control people's reactions much more often than you would have ever thought possible. Try it, you'll like it.

ive even hear a lot of pros say flashing is a sign of weakness

As far as timing you have to know the player. I have used it myself but to use it as a tell first you need to know a few things.

1. Is this person on other tables/tournies
2. Are they playing multiple sites?
3. How often are they using this?
4. Have you seen them do it before?
5. If they do do it what kind of hand did you catch them with?
6. What type of connection are they playing on? (some sites with dial -up connections the players timing varies.

I get suspicious in some situations. Say it's preflop and you're in BB. Everyone folds to the button who takes fooooorever to do anything, then raises. To me this seems really weak becuase I figure he's expecting us to click "check/fold" if he takes forever or trying to make it look like he has some decision to make or something. I'll raise if this happens.
I've seen a few players who when they detect weakness after you bet, they'll pull out the super quick min-raise within like a second. They're thinking this looks super strong. But I've seen players who will do this with a monster, depending on the player these timing tells can tell you what kind of hand they're holding.

imo, the super fast reactions are more reliable than slow ones. Slow ones are easier to fake. If someone insta calls. it usually means overpair, monster. If they insta check they are weak and will fold to any bet. Just my experience.

I'm have been using this Strategy before but the timers tell you everything, well I like sometimes take a long time on me and using the time bank whenever I need it. :P

It's hard to tell nowadays being so many people rely on these tells & do the opposite psychology thing. I've seen it work but now that people have caught on, most things don't work very often anymore.

I was called all in once late in a tournament with K-Q when i had QQ. When I asked him why he called he said I took a long time to raise all in which meant I was weak. In reality my connection was just so bad it took a long time to register - I hit raise pretty soon after given the option.

So beware of using this tell too much.

Here's the thing with timing tells. You can fake taking a long time to act, but you can't fake acting quickly. If an opponent acts very quickly it means they knew what they were going to do immediately. Especially if they're multi-tabling it means they didn't have a tough decision. If they raise quickly it usually means they have it. If they call quickly it means they weren't considering raising or folding. Obviously as mentioned above if the person is looking to manipulate this and have thought it out beforehand it works but for the most part a quick action means it was an easy trivial decision. That's as far as I'll go with timing tells.

I use timing tells sparingly. I generally agree with what was said, but would add, its not uncommon for someone to fake strength or weakness with fast action. if the player is last to act, and the players before take a decent amount of time and do what the player predicted, its not hard to decide what to do before its the players turn. so, if you see someone usually take at least a few seconds to decide and then, for example instacheck, you should be wary.