Top 10 Poker Tells - Win a Set of Books!

Debi

Debi

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In this article Zach Elwood gives us the top 10 live poker tells - and we have added some online tells at the bottom.

Read this article and let's discuss poker tells:

Top 10 Poker Tells


Are there any we have missed for live or online? Do any of these surprise you? What is your favorite live or online poker tell?

The member who makes the best post in this thread will win a set of Zach Elwoods books on live poker tells!

Reading Poker Tells
Verbal Poker Tells

If there are more than 1 great posts I will do a random drawing to decide.
 
C

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Strange coincidence I just read that article the other day.
I found it after looking up some of the tournament tips articles.
It is worth remembering or being reminded that there is more to Cardschat than just the Forum.
The News, Strategy Articles and Tools sections are always available at the top of the screen, but often overlooked.
 
terryk

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My fav tell is when a player in EP min bets AF...a strong tell they have a drawing hand.:)
 
hugh blair

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Player disconnected after losing monster pot connection 100 percent all through tourney and does not log back in even though decent stack left is telling me their laptop maybe just met a wall or jumped out a window lol
 
bighert2

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But if I know that you know these tells does it make it a double reverse tell? But now that you know that I know, ohhh the mind games.
 
Spaceman

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Kinda feel like I am telling my little secret here but lets hope only cardschat players see that.:p

This tell works wonders for me 90% of the time and its a combination of online timing and betting tell. When you are heads up and your opponent check the flop in a normal set of time, and then at the turn he takes a whole lot of time to just check the turn then you should bet the turn with whatever your cards are and you more likely to see a fold than if he checked back at normal time or checked quick.


I believe thats because he either hit something weak and takes time to think if it is worth betting and since he didnt bet, he hope you dont bet and ready to fold if you bet. Or either he didnt hit anything and trying to project that he is thinking of betting or setting a trap so he can see cheaply a river and if you check he intent to bluff the river. Or he just take the time to think if its worth bluffing and concludes that is not.


You have to take account that I am talking about low stakes here, I dont know if this holds true for higher stakes that there are bets in every street.
 
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C

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Not sure if I should share this or keep it to myself.
The most noticeable Tell is 'happy feet'
Some players with a really good hand, without realising it start tapping a foot or wobbling a leg.
I know I am not alone in having noticed this because I have at times turned it around and managed to avoid being called by fakeing a happy foot, so as usual always be aware and beware the false tell.
 
madjek

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Well I was embarrassed playing live small stakes and a player told me about an obvious tell I wasn't even realizing I was doing. I had a big hand and tried checking flop hoping he'd bet. He didn't. So after turn I hesitated and took deep breath and audibly sighed before betting lol. He threw his hand in and said after all that hemming and hawing I obviously had big hand
 
kidkvno1

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The timing tells online, could be added that some players could be playing two or more tables, thus taking more time to bet..
 
elizeuof

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I had watched a final HU poker tournament, the two players were hooded and sunglasses, almost motionless, looking like zombies to hide any tell.

I was outraged, I found it horrible, I prefer to watch games with the biggest players in the world doing their readings and deductions, otherwise it becomes bad for those who are watching. The form that Daniel Negreanu plays inspires me, I wanted to get to that level.
 
Shady Slim

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The timing tells online, could be added that some players could be playing two or more tables, thus taking more time to bet..

This is very true and probably more valid in cash games where they are on 4+tables.

Also, you have players who purposely wait until they hear the "tone" that their timer has started to avoid the tell altogether. IMO, timing tells should be used with caution.
 
Shady Slim

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neptun1914

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As a new player i can not help but i would like to thank for the efforts to write this article and for the sharing. It was very helpful to me.
 
Spaceman

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Sorry for the spam. About the timing tells, I was talking about heads up. Are there really people out there multitabling a heads up game?

Anyway, spotting multitabling is another thing that worked for me as well, and I could even put it as an online tell. Μultitabling players are the most easy ones to bluff because due to multitabling they play mathematical basic poker and would rather fold than go to extremes and make moves on you!
 
Luvart

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Interesting article.

I would say that #3, #4 as far as it concerns live poker and timing tells for online poker are the most reliable types of tells.

Of cource we are never 100% sure about a player's hand until we see it at showdown.....

But I think that for online poker, an immediate call isn't only a medium-strength hand. Especially at the microstakes loose-passive fish almost insta call with solid hands like QQ, JJ, 10-10, AQ, AJs, etc
 
Spaceman

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I have an other one for you! Its when an opponent use the autocheck option. You will notice it because of the instant check. You can take down the pot just by betting with any two cards as he is simply telling you that he didnt hit anything and dont want to put any more money in the pot, so he is hoping to see another card for free!

While it rarely happens, everytime it happens I see it gets noticed and most of players try to take down the pot with bluffing. So you could use it as a reverse tell when you have a monster hand to induce bluffing from your opponent;)

PS Dakota can we instead of sending the books accept me as a freeroll club member?:D:D:D
 
Edison A

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good article, I really like online poker and it's my favorite, the online TELLS are a bit difficult to detect, I think the only way to detect one is to see the rapids that your opponent does CALL or when it takes to do CALL, there is always an inusal movement in a betting round, but to detect it you should have enough time at a table to know the movement of each player at the table, for example an unusual movement in an AGGRESSIVE or PASSIVE player.
Live poker is much easier to detect the TELLS for example I think a good strategy to detect that a player is lying is in the tone of his voice, it is a good technique to speak with a question and you can detect nervousness or security in the tone of his voice
 
Andrew Popov

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Interesting stuff, but I'm afraid I have nothing to add to it. I have very little experience of playing live poker. Basically I play online. In addition, I believe that behavior can be very different for players representing different nations. You have to take into account the peculiarities of behavior and gestures for different cultures and customs.
 
ZenGreen

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I try to read tells at the table, but Im sure im giving off more than I see. There are times my hand is literally shaking at the table when I pull big bluffs and live these folks will make you sweat for like a minute, which seems like an eternity. I rejammed 2 pair on this one dude, he took off his glasses and stared me up and down for like 2 minutes and its like what do you do, sit there like a dummy. Do I stare back like MF I got you beat, or do I stare at the walls. I tried the walls but damn you can only do it for so long. I just said Damn dude we aint playing for a bracelet, muck it or lets go
 
C

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Neve played live...well not with friedns, but for real. Hope to use what you wrote up =) could be intersting how m,uch of an open book I am... or other people are =)
PS Cant really agre or timing unless we are taling really low stackes. most players will think about how to play sets or flushes on futures streets and tryinbg to get that split second difference is not something I would personaly do.
 
chicopaw

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usually the fast Snap call/raise tells you the player is a newbie, and just hit, or is holding top nuts. easy fold, Also works in reverse to confuse others
 
masik6

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A very interesting and informative material I especially liked the second article about offline poker like IGRAC behave in different situations and with different hands toli toli strong or weak when bluffing me for the novice player offline is very useful thanks for the moterial.
 
makisaa

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Very interesting article which has to do with behavior, player actions and body language. We have observed them in game many times. Another tell we can observe is anger. Angry behavior or angry bets. For examble when a player faces his two cards and sees the cards that made him lose a big part of his stack a few hands before he might behave with anger. If a player has made a bad beat and lost also a big amount of his stack he might make an immediate angry bet, like all in with J2!
 
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