All poker players have two things in common – admiration for spotting tells and ambition to master the moves of deception. Many great players will often tell you that they won lots of games based solely on picking up a twitch and exploiting it as much as possible. All these moves will come handy if you are sitting in a poker room and have a chance of analyzing your rivals. Playing online poker is a whole other story. One question abounds – how can you spot tells during poker and other casino games on your iPad for instance?
Examining the invisible opponent
There are three areas you need to research: timing tells, bet sizing tells and pattern similarities.
When it comes to timing, you are comparing the interval of your rival’s action and the strength of his or her hand. If you see an instant automatic raise, be aware that these cards are usually very strong. Sure, you’ll sometimes see a fanatic doing this, but generally think about it as a big red light. On the other hand, instant automatic check does quite the opposite. Your opponent’s hand is most likely weak. A real interesting signal of a strong hand is a long pause followed by a raise. Take this one very seriously.
The next thing to consider are bet sizing tells. Over-bets and small turn bets are very often signs of weakness. You should know by now that a person, who bets small and suddenly goes for a monster bet, usually holds a powerful combination. Also, don’t be fooled into the pot with large amounts of small bets.
Finally, there are pattern similarities. If you master the skill of reading patterns, you will be awesome in poker and basically in anything you like. With it, you are able to target norms and avoid unpleasant surprises. First things first, as soon as you see an unnatural behaviour occurring, get the hell out of there because it’s 99% a strong hand. Don’t get intimidated much by big chat talkers, since they are most likely a bunch of amateurs. It should not be taken as the real life trash talk. But, if you notice a quiet player suddenly yapping all over the place, you keep an eye on him or her. Notice, it’s a sudden change of behavioural pattern signalizing you a probable strong hand.
Building up a defensive block
No great attack came without a steady defense. To put in another way, you definitely don’t want to give away tells. The good way to start is with timing. Try to have exact time spaces before making an action. Similar goes with amounts, keep them sweet and simple. When you feel confident enough, do a little Jack Sparrow – become unpredictable. Use your imagination, spice things up and for the love of everything, don’t repeat a winning move.
Finally, take into account that these are not the exact guidelines on how to dominate online poker. Every opponent is different and you should respect each one if you want to become the master of spotting tells. Good luck!