poker

If you want to be sure that your poker knowledge is growing, and you want to become a real poker master, it is not always that important to play hundreds of hands, or to calculate the Holdem Odds. Learning to read your opponents’ tells is critical.

A poker tell is a subliminal act of body language, and most of the people don’t even know that they are giving up these tells. In the poker game, a tell can be used to tell you if the gambler in front of you has a strong hand or not, is he going to bluff or not, what does he want to do with his current hand in the given moment, etc. Once you do this, you’ll be able to figure out how to proceed with your hand afterwards.

The fact that most of the people have no idea that they are perpetrate these tells. By trying to keep their outward emotions in check, players can sometimes release the feelings about their hands in different nonverbal actions.

Common Poker Tells:

Acting strong with a weak hand and acting weak with a decent hand. One of the most important things you should know about the poker players is that almost every time they are trying to play their hands as the opposite of what they are. For example, a player with a strong hand will act timidly, pretending he has a weak hand, avoiding eye contact, wishing to hoodwink as much players as possible to enter the pot. Similar to that, a player with a weak hand will most often stare at you, trying to intimidate you, and make you fold. This is one of the most common poker tells.

The facial response – when you are dealt your hole cards, do not look at them immediately. Before that, watch the facial expressions of the other gamblers while they are looking at their cards. All of them will try to look calm and disinterested while they are looking at their cards, but in the first one or two seconds you might get the chance to see some kind of tell.

Sudden changes of behaviour – let’s say that at your table there is a player who is very chatty, but suddenly he becomes very quiet – the best for you in this situation is to watch out. When people are dealt strong hands their behaviour suddenly changes.

Quickly looking at the chip stack. This is one of the subliminal tells that people give away, without even realizing that. When someone glances at his/her chip stack, be sure that he/she is planning their attack. Once again, the key is in the eyes of your opponent.

Carefully protecting their hand – if for example someone is keeping his hand with the hands over it, just like guarding something, be prepared that this player has a good hand.

Face covering – when poker players tend to perform a Poker Bluff, as a rule, they are going to feel uncomfortable at the table, and they will feel particularly uncomfortable when any of the other players is trying to look them in the eyes. The player that tends to bluff could even try to cover his mouth or other part of his face with his hand, but be aware with that action, because it can be used when a player wants to hide the fact that they do not have a great hand.

Knowing how to read and interpret even just some simple tells such these will allow you become much more successfull in your poker game, and will have other poker players marveling at your skills. Please remember that these are some really widespread behaviours, and not every player will display some of these tells. So do not completely rely on a tell in your poker game, if a certain gambler is not giving you consistent reads on his emotions during the game.