timing in betting

[guaranteedBluff]

Hey all!

Just wondering about your ideas about the timing techniques employed online.

For example, waiting for 20s, then going all-in versus immediately going all-in. Or, waiting for full time then checking, etc...

Not sure whether to decipher these as tells or they are completely unreliable.

Any thoughts???

[xorbie]

The problem with using these tells is that someone is often just multitabling and has been at another table, then comes back and has run his timer halfway down.

[Stronghands]

Timing could be a lot of things.

Slower times could be due to an opp multi-tabling, deciding what you have, deciding how much to bet, calculating odds, etc. Faster times could be obvious decisions (like having the nuts, standard plays, etc.), having decided to try to take the pot away, and so on.

I don't think there is a general read on timing that can apply to all players, but some players do follow a consistent pattern.

[TheWorstPlayer]

Slow is not that reliable, unless all other actions have been fast and this one is particularly slow, in which case it often means they have to think and their hand is marginal, but sometimes is just obvious hollywooding depending on the board and their style of play. Fast is often weak, though. Of course sometimes it's strong. Like a fast check/raise is often strong, but a fast bet or raise is often slow. Whatever. They aren't that reliable across multiple people, but they are usually pretty reliable for a specific person. So if you see someone bet really slow with a monster, next time he bets slow he probably has a monster, too.

[djoyce003]

I check to see if someone that is taking a long time to make certain decisions is multitabling via the search function...if they are then I pay no attention....if they are only playing 1 table, then I might consider using it as information at a later time.