The Myth Of Online Poker Tells

Posted by CarbonPoker on 2nd February 2010

blurred cardsAlmost as soon as you start learning online poker strategy, you’re going to be hit with a barrage of information on tells and reading opponents.  And this info is extremely useful when you’re playing live poker since people can give out a lot of tells at the table.  Everything from physical tendencies to nervous twitches can reveal the strength of an opponent’s hand.

But in online poker, you can’t spot these live tendencies so it’s a lot tougher to read players.  Even with this being the case, there are plenty of people who would lead you to believe they can still read other online players.

They say to watch for the speed at which people make their calls; reacting slow reveals a strong hand because people want to fool you into thinking they had a tough decision, while reacting fast shows a weaker hand because they want you to think their hand is great and the call was easy.  In addition to this “nice” little tip, people also say to look at avatars, screen names, etc.

In reality though, trying to decipher tells in online poker can be a waste of time – especially if you play at the lower limits!  In fact, some players spend more time trying to strategize about the various psychological aspects of online poker when they should be focusing on more straightforward concepts.  After all, spending the entire game searching for that one little tell from a single player (who might leave the game soon anyways) isn’t as important as knowing your implied odds on a certain hand.

With this being said, you can still benefit from reading opponents and watching their betting tendencies.  In fact, doing so really pays off as you move up in stakes.  However, make sure you have all of the basic and intermediate strategy down before worrying so much about reading other players.

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One Response to “The Myth Of Online Poker Tells
  • braydenmark says:

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