The science of poker tells part two

Just like any bricks and mortar tell, it takes several instances to verify that a tell is accurate or not. If you notice a particular poker player who is not chatting then you cannot pin any one possible explanation to it until you are in receipt of further data.

Tells based on a players stack size!

I have always found this tell to be very reliable. Whenever a new player sits down on my online poker table and buys in for the minimum then I will automatically peg them as being tight or passive. Very rarely are they loose and aggressive, their minimum buy in has been made because of factors like not wanting to risk too much money at anyone time.

This trait marks them as a cautious type of person before they have even played a hand. If they are weak and cautious then they will likely limp and call into many pots and this will become rapidly apparent. If they have a bit more about them and know things like good and bad starting hands and are patient and disciplined enough to wait for them then this is also a tell.

These players will wait for a big hand and play it very aggressively when they get it. But the fact remains that their minimum buy in was based on caution and fear and this is a tell in itself and especially when it comes to potentially stealing from these players.

Time duration tells!

By this I mean the length of time that it takes for a poker player to make their play. If someone raises and it gets around to a player and their fold is instant then this is likely to be a player who has already clicked the “fold to a bet/raise” button. Of course knowing that someone intended to fold after the event is not of much use to us but it does in fact indicate a poker player who is prone to using pre-action buttons.

If you were to repeat this scenario and it was bet and called by two opponents and their call was visibly instant on a board of Ah-9c-8c then this could be an indication that this player is on a draw and is receiving the proper pot odds to call and has clicked the “call any bet” button.

Tells like these can be a great help and especially in games like limit Texas Hold’em where players are frequently receiving the correct pot odds to draw to hands. Taking this a stage further and if a raise was instant then this would indicate that the raiser was raising with a powerful hand and his action was something of a no brainer otherwise they would have needed at least a few seconds of thinking time.

If you raised before the flop with AK and it was called and then a re-raise was instantaneous then a fold could be in order here and especially in a game like No Limit Hold’em. Another possible tell when it comes to betting is when a player stalls for a long time as if apparently thinking and then either calls the bet or raises. Look out for part three of this series coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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