Is it worth it to pay attention to how much time an opponent takes to act?

Important if the value is the fact how long the opponent thinks before making a move? You look at this factor? and what information it gives you about your opponent?

Yes, it is a useful tell, although sometimes there are extraneous reasons for a long period of time being used, and some players try to fake it.

I don't take any notice of the time, a lot of people multitable especially on Stars. So how long they take is meaningless as far as tells go.

steveiam said:

I don't take any notice of the time, a lot of people multitable especially on Stars. So how long they take is meaningless as far as tells go.

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i concur

I don't think you should pay much attention to the time because you never know if they are multitabling. If they have 12 tables opened maybe they took more time because they were making a decision in another table, not at yours. But it is a very important factor if you are playing the final table of a tournery with a high buyin. I bet your opponents full attention is on that table. Good Luck my friend!

I have the following personal view on the topic:
If you had a very strong hand (Monster hand - preflop; or top pair and above on flop) I do not care how much time is needed to the opponent to make a choice.
On the other hand, if my hand is not so strong - I could recognize a slow responding as a treath. Then the stake is crucial! To go ahead, or to stop...

Yes, it is very much important. I would even say its highly critical. It can be your friend or your enemy depending on the situation. Although, like everything in poker, you can never be 100% sure, but it can be a strong indicator. Usually, when it comes to time, a person acting quickly can say a lot.
If someone pops with a big bet or all in within 1 second or two, more than likely, they got something big. Its not 100%, but then again, the reason why people bet big pre-flop with AA is not because its 100%, but because it has the best chance of winning at the time. If someone does take a lot of time, like more than 5 or 10 seconds, than it could indicate they have a weaker hand.

I would say, pay attention to the amount of time a person takes, but don't totally rely on it of course. There are people who will purposely take more time to make it seem like they have a weaker hand, and I know people who go all-in instantly when there really just bluffing. But these are the exceptions to the rule. Just like getting your AA busted. Generally speaking, the amount of time people take Can tell you something, if they move fast, they got something, if they take longer they got a weak hand. This is my opinion.

I usually wouldn't pay attention to that.....many people multi-table and may have a tough decision to make at another table or are simply playing a bundle of tables and tanking everytime....however....sometimes people will do whats called a "fake tank aka "hollywooding"" meaning they'll go into the tank pretending like their making a huge laydown even though they have air. I am a fan of it

i think it depends on the situation. if you are playing freerolls and the tournament is at the beginning.. not at all should you care.. or even right before or after a break. this is because people usually run to the restroom and may skip or hand or whatever they might be doing.. you see people go inactive in some low stake tournaments as well.. cash games are the ones that are more time sensitive.

How many people, so many opinions, yet there thanks; something to think about. You live and learn-

I'm thinking you could search the player in the find player area of the site and find out how many tables a person is playing. I do think it does matter when you can see they are only playing 1 or 2 tables. I try to use this tactic (of taking time) against weak or loose players who are not very aggressive cause it puts a huge question mark in their minds and can be very effective when in a stealing situation. Time is crucial also when a person hits the nuts, they try to make it look like they are thinking real hard to chase a straight or flush, but typically if you raise ahead of this person they will re raise at some point, so be careful when trying to bluff your way to the win on that particular pot. Take into consideration how that person has been playing and the size of his/her pot. This also helps in the 'length of time to decide' tell.

I think how long it takes a person to act can give you valuable information, but it is not accurate for every situation. Sometimes people are multi-tabling, so you never know if they are taking a long time because they are just on another table making a decision. So I would say don't always rely on this as a tell.

I'd factor this mostly during a live game.

Online, like what everyone says, other players are probably multi-tabling and sometimes may not even be aware it's their turn to act on your table.

Most times it's the cause of crappy internet connection.

I don't take any notice of the time, i don't think it is important, and it can't be tell. On the other hand if you play slower its gonna be much more hard for your opponent to decide where in the hand you are because this make them nervous and can ruin totally their decisions.

I would say dont use the time as a tell...
It could be easily faked...
They really could be multi tabling or maybe something in real life where they dont respond in time..
Not everyone uses just the half pot or pot betting options and it could take longer to pick a perfect sized value bet etc.. I would just say not to use time as a tell.. I know alot of people do but it is so iffy.. I prefer my gut instincts.. Rather focus on bet sizes and how they bet streets than the time it took.. Just my 2 cents!

it depends on the circunstance, if this player acts really fast, you could sense that maybe he is bluffing and if he takes lots of time that he has a good hand. however this isnt a parameter to determined the strenght of his hand, so in my opinion it can be important how much time someone takes to play however you cant just rely on that to determine whether to call fold, call or raise his bet.

depends heavily on the player and environment.

Live it could be deliberate

Online a long delay then check or min bet is usually strong, though that is exploitable to.

Dont forget lag can play a huge factor. I used to multitable from Kuwait on a dial-up and any delays or attempts to read me based on time would have been wasted.

tells especially w.r.t time taken has little value at low stakes.. especially in freerolls...

It's opponent- and situation-dependent. For example, I can think of players whose hesitation is a pretty reliable indicator of what they have in a particular type of situation, but not in others. I can also think of players who tend to act slowly when strong as well as others who tend to be slow when weak. There are even some who act slowly when weak in some situations but when strong in others.

Too many extraneous reasons for delays. It is not any kind of reliable tell. It might however give me a little additional time to think, if they are busy otherwise.

if you know your opponent is not doing anything else but playing in this table it could be a factor, but remember that most of players (sometimes to avoid get bored) do other stuff while playing (including playing in the same site or others, checking forums like that, surfing the web, speak by phone, cook, tv or whatever) so i really don´t see time response as i factor,

also consider you have the bottoms so you can check at them so time is short and somtimes one forgets to play doing the other things, but its possible that at certain moments time response could be use as a way to read your opponent if you are really in to it

I do not believe time is a factor .I agree with the comments above a lot fake it so you think they are calculating the hands.If the table I am playing plays slow I play slow.

great post, I agree with alot of the posts, mulitable player usually takes their time but i believe it is important to take notice in heads up game , I play alot of heads up and you will most definitely always notice it when a player pattern changes. Sometimes you can easily read the opponent with the time he takes. I usually play very fast at a steady pace to avoid being read.

also forgot to add , if you get a read on the opponent it can give you the advantage in rematches

in general i don't pay attention to that factor at all. this person could easily visitinig some websites during play or just multitabling. sometimes even they thought on purpose to make you think that they are in trouble. just don't focus on that