I noticed tonight a player, after i had busted out, who would hold his cards up.. letting me see them, since i wasn't in anymore and sitting sorta behind him at the table. Every time he had a crap hand he would hold them up and kinda stare at them for a while, BUT when he had any kind of playable hand(and this guy is semi nitty) he would look at them the same way, but almost immediately put them back facedown. I'm not sure if this is something he always does, but I am for sure gonna look into it next time i'm sitting at the table with him and see if this might be a huge tell on him that he is unaware of.
Sometimes small things like this can be nothing, and sometimes it can be something. Just catalog it in your brain and keep an eye out for it and see if you see a pattern or not. Most of the time it's probably nothing, but other times it could be a nice tell on someone they don't know they are showing. i've screwed myself up thinking i knew a tell on a player before, which turned out to ne nothing at all.
I personally try to do the same thing every time.. for example i wait until it comes around to me to look at my cards, and than i always place one of my chips on the cards as a protector, think about what i'm gonna do and than either move the chip off and fold, or keep it on a raise/bet etc... and i always look behind me to see if someone is starting to get chips ready to make a big bet/raise or whatever.. im surprised at how many people are getting chips ready or holding their cards like they are gonna fold them, and can almost know who is gonna fold/call/bet behind me... This of course is in a free league I'm talking about, so many many fishes..
GL!