The science of poker tells part one

Can you spot as many tells in online poker as you can with live poker?This is a very interesting question and one that has been asked by many people. The simple fact of the matter is that whenever you play live poker, you will if you are skilled enough be able to pick up on certain tells by certain players. Many professional players who ply their trade in a bricks and mortar poker environment base their entire game on spotting and exploiting tells.

It is also the opinion of many people that playing poker in an online environment eliminates being able to pick up on these tells, they are in a word….wrong! This is simply because there are all kinds of tells in poker and they do not necessarily have to be visual either.

Whenever you look for tells in an online poker game or a live game, all you are essentially doing is looking for different things that’s all. Most of the tells that players give off in an online game can also be picked up in a live game but the same is not true in reverse. So just what kind of tells can be picked up by glaring at the screen?

Tells in the chat box!

I know many online players who have their chat box function turned off and they are making a big mistake in my opinion. You can in fact gather an awful lot of information simply by watching what other players are typing into the box.

For instance, any player who types something like “you moron, you didn’t have odds there for that play” or if they say something sarcastic like “you are really world class” after a particularly nasty bad beat, this could indicate a player who is hurting emotionally from the loss and could possibly be tilting or nearing the stage where they might tilt. I have seen many instances where players have typed statements like this and then started raising and re-raising the next few pots.

Players who chat and talk constantly will likely know the person who they are talking to either on a personal level or by playing with them constantly. Most players who do this are revealing that they are in fact recreational players who are just there to have a bit of relaxation and fun and the level of their chat will indicate this.

Of course even no chat at all is a big fat poker tell. When a player is not chatting at all then this could be a tell and it could reveal many things. Possibly the player has their chat function turned off or maybe they are playing several tables at the same time and simply do not have the time to chat. Another possible explanation is that they are serious players and do not want to enter into any chat of any kind. Look out for the next part of this multi-part series on tells coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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