Tips for Figuring Your Opponent’s Tells While Playing Poker

Hey there poker fellas, how’s your betting game going? Far from the usual betting blogs you’ve read in the past, this post from Dewapoker21.com is about something a little bit more psychological and intuitive – poker tells!

But before we delve into the matters of the day, let’s first discuss what tells are.

What are tells?

A tell in poker is a change in a player’s behaviors or demeanor that is claimed by some to give clues to that player’s assessment of their hand. In poker, the general consensus is that a player gains an advantage if they observe and understand the meaning of another players tells, particularly if the tells are unconscious and reliable.

Now you see why I said we’re learning something different in this post. For a fact, we know that most poker posts love to focus on winning tips, playing strategies, hand selection, bluffing, and bluff calling. This post, however, is designed to focus more on the behavior of your opponent, with the belief that once you get the right clues, you’re just a few moves away from winning the pot.

Now to the question of the day: how can you figure out your opponent’s tells?

Betting Patterns

The best way to discover the tells of an opponent is to observe the betting patterns of that player. By studying the betting patterns of your opponent, you’re gaining invaluable insight into how an opponent plays a strong or weak hand. This leaves you in a far more advantageous position in deciding whether to pursue the bet at hand, check or fold.

Unfortunately, due to the inconsistent nature of humans, it can be pretty difficult for someone to observe the betting patternsof their opponents accurately. While some players might show some signs when they have a big hand, others might show the same signs when they’re bluffing. And, of course, some might even show the same signs when they’re trying to fool you.

That said, the following hints can help you sift through the multiple tells on display.

• The first tell you see is, more often than not, not genuine
• The shortest tell is most likely the most reliable
• Long, drawn-out tells are most likely false because the opponent is intentionally doing them to confuse.
• A general rule of thumb: Weakness tells often means strength, while strong tells usually points to weaknesses.

While there are so many tells for different situations in the game, we’ll share with you 10 of the most common tells in two of the biggest situations of a poker game: when an opponent has a strong hand and when an opponent has a weak hand.

Strong Hand Tells

• Shaking or trembling hands: This is most likely an accurate tell that indicates the strength of the hand of an opponent. It is very difficult to imitate. And as such, not too many players feign it.
• Non-stop/constant speech: In the game of poker, when a player has a strong hand, they tend to appear more comfortable. While some might express their comfort in different ways, others choose to speak more often.
• Relaxed composure
• Big, broad, smile and a happy face
• Longer stare at the Flop, then a quick, surreptitious glance at their opponents
• Suddenly becomes far more attentive
• Suddenly leaning back in their chair and playing the game in a more relaxed mode.
• Eagerly impatient to place a bet

Tip

In order to accurately discern a strong hand, tell from any other tell, many expert players recommend that players should look at their opponent’s eyes, as well as their hands more often. For instance, unless a player naturally has a shaking hand, a trembling hand will most likely indicate a strong hand.

Weak Hand Tells

• Deep held breath and a static body: It is well-established that humans tend to sigh more or hold their breath when they’re going through an uncomfortable situation. And that’s not even all. When people do this, they do so unconsciously.
• Rambling speeches
• Aggressively tossing the chips away into the pot: Yes, you can feign aggression once, but to do it on multiple occasions could only mean one thing – the game isn’t panning out as you’d like
• Constantly staring you down
• Consciously checking hole cards after the flop
• No longer interested in looking after their hole cards
• Eyes blinking more rapidly