Saturday, July 25, 2009

Ka-Ching! 2 Online Poker Tells That Work

Poker Tells When You Play at A Card Room

A while back I wrote a blog post on 8 Poker Tells That Work (usually). These tells were for playing in a brick and mortar game. You should review that post before you go out to play in your next game.

Ka-ching! 2 Online Poker Tells That Work

1. When A Pregnant Pause means FOLD


This tell is really equivalent of the most prevalent offline tell--act weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak. It happens when your opponent takes that really long pause on the river and then boom, he puts in a big bet.

When this happens there is a 99.99% probability that he has you beat, and beat badly. FOLD! You'll beat this guy later.

This has become such an obvious ploy, that it's like a comedic pregnant pause waiting to suck you in for a call/laugh.

2. A Player is Missing means ATTACK.

When you notice that a player has not gotten involved in a round of poker, his cards fold a little too fast every time the action gets to him, and he doesn't even take part in the big blind, he is not at the table.

Take advantage and bet. This will happen at the start of an event and after the breaks.

If he is in the big blind, you should raise pre-flop first-in when you are in the hijack (2 off from button), cut-off, button, and small blind. When he is in the small blind, assume the big blind is weak and raise from the same spots. Don't get too reckless, but look to take advantage of this situation.

Bonus: Observe your opponents bet tempo.

Players tend to act at an even pace. When that pace changes, it often has meaning. Obviously, it could just mean the player is sizing his bet. But, other times, it may mean he has missed and is trying to figure out what to do.

This is not a ka-ching tell since there can be a lot of reasons for this change of tempo. However, you can sometimes sense something is off when this happens.

Do you have other online tells you are willing to share?

If you are losing money at online poker, here is my simple secret to winning at online poker. It may help you become a winner online.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I usually try to make a big raise on the river as fast as possible when I have a monster hand, hoping people will think I have a weak hand and am trying to hide it. (reverse psychology?) I don't think I've ever tried a pause on the river when I have a monster. I have paused with a good hand after the flop to make it look like I'm being indecisive, but then I usually call, not raise.

The more I read your entries, the more I think I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did.

Unknown said...

another thing that helps find sitters in tournaments that don't show it on the avatar is to look @ the previous hand player (like FTP) and it shows "sitting out" !!

What's Your Poker IQ?