Live Poker Online

Online Poker Tells


The main disadvantage of playing Live poker online is the inability to see your opponent, limiting your ability to see poker tells. Tells are simply things that your opponent does that help you determine the strength of his cards. There are several good poker tells that you can use when playing poker online.

Your opponents going on tilt

Going on tilt simply means playing poorly after taking a few big losses. You will find poker players on tilt in every online cardroom, at every playing level. A big time tell of someone about to go on tilt is when they show their cards after losing a hand, basically stating: "I had you all the way until you got lucky on the river". They will often make chat statements like: "Nice catch", or even say things like "Why were you in that hand?" Poker players who are on tilt can play you a lot of money, as they will be playing poor hands, and raising without merit. Punish your opponents who go on tilt, and watch for them. Take advantage of players who let their emotions get the better of them, turning a bad situation into a worse one.

Beware of the "Auto Buttons".

When you bet into someone, and they immediately raise you, chances are they have used an auto button. AVOID AUTO BUTTONS! People who are bluffing (especially early in a hand) will almost NEVER use an auto-button. When you see someone using the 'raise' auto button, you can easily fold your marginal hands, as they will almost always have you beat.

Players taking a long time to decide

Pay attention to this one, as it happens all the time, especially in no-limit and pot-limit games. If your opponent takes a long time to call a bet, he usually has a marginal hand. If he takes a long time, and then bets or raises, he almost always has a very strong hand. Often people with the 'nuts' (The best possible starting hand) will delay their bet in an attempt to look weak. Don't fall for this. If they delay then call, they are usually weak or marginal. If they delay then bet, they are usually very strong

Very quick calls and very quick bets

Another interesting thing about online poker is that you can learn a lot about your opponent by watching how much time he takes to bet or call. Please note, I am not talking about an instantaneous call, with an auto-button, I am calling about a quick call or bet, within a second or two of the previous player acting. When someone quickly calls, it means one of two things. Either they have a good draw they are not going to fold until the river, or they think you are bluffing, and have a medium to weak hand. Quickly calling is an attempt to get you (or whoever) to stop betting. Its just like in real life poker, when someone is holding the chips above the pot, just waiting for you to bet, so he can quickly call. This is a sign of weakness, and you should continue betting if you think you have the best hand. Quick betting is also a sign of weakness. This isn't as reliable as the quick calling, but I have found that when I bluff, I tend to bet quickly, making it look like I used my autobutton.


Avoid tells yourself

It is fairly easy to avoid giving anything away online, but you would be surprised how many people don't think that they can give any tells online. Here are a few things to keep in mind when playing poker online, to avoid giving any information away to your opponents:

1. Never Use Auto buttons
2. Try to take the same time between bets/calls/raises every time.
3. Find a standard way of 'chatting' online, use a simple nh to indicate a nice hand for your opponent, and ty to indicate thank you.
4. Don't discuss strategy while playing.