Live Poker Tells

Human beings are funny, emotional creatures and usually that’s a good thing. At the poker table, however, those little quirks that make us humans so loveable are our greatest downfall. Very few people can lie in high pressure situations and give away absolutely no body language clues. In live poker, tells often give clues about the contents of our opponents’ hands.

Before we get into this discussion, let me tell you that tells are not 100% reliable. No two humans react the same way to each situation. That twitching eye might be a tell for one person and a nerve problem for another. Tells should be treated as a part of the puzzle rather than the puzzle itself. Tells should also be used in combination with other sources of information such as betting patterns and the board texture.

Now that we have that out of the way, here a few of the most common live poker tells:

1. Shaking hands

When I was new to live play, I always assumed that shaking hands meant a person was bluffing. I was totally wrong. Shaking hands often means that the person in question has a very strong hand and is excited and nervous as the same time. You have to remember that most people don’t play live poker very often. When they finally see a big hand, they get all antsy and shaky.

The next time a player with shaking hands drops their chips or knocks something over, don’t automatically assume it means deception. In the majority of cases, it’s simply a matter of nervous excitement.

2. Weak means strong and strong means weak

This tell was briefly mentioned in the “How to Spot a Bluff” article. The basic concept here is that when opponents act weak, it means they are strong. When they act strong, it means they are weak. Your opponents are assuming that by acting weak they can encourage calls and by acting strong they can encourage folds.

It makes sense at first but if you stop and think about it, their logic is backwards. Let’s say we have an opponent who makes a big bet then smiles and does everything possible to act confident. That person is trying to intimidate you into folding. It doesn’t make sense, though, because if that person truly had a strong hand, he would be doing everything in his power to get you to call.

This tell goes both ways. Let’s consider the person who thinks for a long time, sighs, looks disgusted and then puts out a huge bet. It almost looks like it was painful to make that bet. In this case, your opponent is clearly trying to get a call. Logic then tells us that this opponent actually has a strong hand.

You have to be careful with this tell, though. Sophisticated opponents are capable of using this tell on purpose to make you think they are falling into the old “strong means weak” trap. Poker players refer to this type of second-level deception as “leveling.”

3. Spotting consistencies for yourself

There are a million other possible tells that your opponents can exhibit at the poker table. There’s no way we can cover every possible tell but that’s OK because you have the most powerful tool available for free: your own observation.

Watch your opponents closely and look for differences in the way they play their hands. If you watch any one player long enough, you’ll get to see how that person plays many different types of hands. Eventually, you’ll find a consistency in the manner in which that opponent plays all weak or strong hands.

One thing I like to do is pick a specific player (preferably a weak player with a big stack) and pay close attention to that player. Notice any movements that player makes – watch his body language, look for sudden intakes of breath, shaking hands, twitching eyes, etc. Pay close attention to all the hands that player shows down. Eventually you’ll spot a consistent tell that you can use to your advantage during the rest of the game.

4. Watch out for your own tells

Don’t get so caught up watching your opponents that you forget to mind your own tells. Every time you play a hand, try to remain as still as possible. Don’t make any fake gestures or try to coerce your opponents into any certain action. Just practice staying perfectly still no matter how strong or weak your hand.

It’s even more important to watch your own tells because you have an entire table of players who can use that tell against you. When you catch a tell on any single player, you only gain an advantage over that one person. If you give off tells, however, you are helping the entire table gain an advantage over you.