Pausing before acting

[DMACM]

This is something I havent read any posts about in my short time here. However, I read about this in an article about Pokerho the UB MTT player and I notice a lot of good players doing this. What they will do is always delay before they act, particularity on the flop. I play mostly NL ring and I bluff a lot and for I find that the longer I wait before betting when its checked to me the greater the chance they fold. This may be because the typical player thinks much longer about extracting money from a good hand and check/folds or auto bluffs instictively and quick. Even if more sophisticated players will not put you on a stronger hand because you delayed, at least you prevent yourself from giving off the one tell that can be given off online.

[DasLeben]

I generally pause about the same amount of time whether I'm bluffing or not. This isn't due to me thinking about anything, but mostly just working the slider. I generally have a plan on certain flops, and quickly act on it accordingly.

Something I've considered however, is that when I'm multitabling, I tend to check the check/fold box quite a bit in the BB. I've been trying to stop doing that, as it's obvious to my opponent that I really have nothing on most flops, so my bluffing ability is pretty much gone.

[john_]

I think pausing before acting can be good if you do it in a "random" way. Sometimes when all in'ing or making an all in call early preflop I'll do a long pause even with AA. Usually this is because I'm looking up the pp data and other statistical data I have debating a call with a hand like QQ. So if you always quickly called with AA then your opponent could get a read on you and know you have a "good" hand when you paused but not a "great" hand.

[Phil Van Sexton]

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I notice a lot of good players doing this. What they will do is always delay before they act

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The best players are playing 4-8 tables at the same time. This slows them down, obviously.

[Nottom]

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So if you always quickly called with AA then your opponent could get a read on you and know you have a "good" hand when you paused but not a "great" hand.

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What difference does it make if you are all-in?

I fcuking want to punch my opponent everytime they think for 20 sec and then call my all-in with AA or some other huge hand. Its basically just the online equivalent of a slowroll.

[valenzuela]

maybe theyre doing something else. defenetly maybe.

[Nottom]

I'm sure thats the case most of the time, but sometimes its just them being asses. One guy was even a dick enough to type in chat while "thinking".

[DasLeben]

I've had that happen a few times. I'll push with some trash hand, expecting BB to fold. One of these times, I ran into aces. Instead of insta-calling (like I'd do), he lounged around typing about how "you've got bad timing."

That's VERY unnecessary.

[prepotency]

I think paying attention to timing is almost always a complete misnomer. This is because there are an infinite number of reasons why they could be taking time: they are 8-tabling, they are trying to eat and their fingers are covered with peanut butter, their smoke alarm is going off; etc. I will qualify this by saying that sometimes i pay attention to timing when someone is going all in. Generally, weaker players are going to either go instantly all-in (they have the nuts) or they are going to wait for a few minutes because they have no idea what they should do in this situation, in which case, you put them all in on the next card, etc. I do pay attention to people checking the check fold button though. I consider them folded when i making betting calculations and i push them out of the hand most of the time.

[LeVoodoo]

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I do pay attention to people checking the check fold button though. I consider them folded when i making betting calculations and i push them out of the hand most of the time.

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Which brings up another interesting technique, which is auto-checking behind your opponent when you have a monster. This works especially well in a heads-up pot, where you are very likely to see your opponent raise the next chance he gets.

[prepotency]

I agree, but don't go balls the the walls with it - it's not at all an exact science - probably 50% of the time they didn't even notice, rofl

[Blarg]

I spilled my tea today and that took a while to clean up. Earlier, I had been eating and the tomatoes kept falling out of my sandwich. Getting my hands ungoopy slowed me down there. I poured some more hot tea and that slowed me down again. Party was slow today and actually disconned me even though my net connection was fine, and that slowed me down. Plus, I usually play four tables, and that slows me down sometimes.

All in all, I think I may have an occasional bit of info coming out when my action isn't instant, but I have so many other reasons for being slow besides thinking about a hand that I'm not all that worried about it.

[DMACM]

I don't think that paying attention to timing is a misnomer. I agree that someone might pause long for a number of reasons and this might not give you information but someone acting quickly I would say does give information. Either he has a hand which he perceives doesn't require much thought, he doesn't think much, or he plays his hands according to very rigid rules. I do think this is important and though I am not anal enough to do this I think it would be an asset to count the number of times the arrow flashes and act on a certain number every time. If I played 25-50NL or something I probably would do this. I admit that the value of timing is very small. I just think it exists.

[prepotency]

I think it exists but that it's so variable that you could almost never garner any useful information from it - furthermore, acting quickly doesn't mean much either - i act the same speed regardless, before it gets to me, I already know what I'm betting depending on how the person in front of me plays