Online Tells

[kurtcobain]

Where can I find a good thread or site with a list of common online tells. I know a few betting and timing tells, but I bet I'm overlooking some.

[deacsoft]

[ QUOTE ]
Where can I find a good thread or site with a list of common online tells.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right here:
There are very few and none that are solid. Don't even worry about them. Concentrate on your play and the play of your opponents. If you take good notes on the other players; they will, in a sense, become those players' tells.

[astroglide]

i disagree. i can often tell with high accuracy where somebody is based on timing.

[kurtcobain]

I think there are often timing tells, and certainly betting tells. An immediate call with a draw on board says something, as does going into the tank and raising on the river, or leading out with a min bet in a big pot.

Obviously these aren't sure fire, but more often than not...
Quick call w/ draw on board: Draw
Min bet into big pot: Draw or weak hand (middle pair or something)
I once got min raised INSTANTLY after betting, and so I looked for the guy to see if he was at another table, and sure enough, he was. I reraised all in and took the pot down. He typed "damn window just popped up...didnt mean to raise."
Brief pause followed by a check (and then raise) out of a blind when rags flop: Two pair

If anyone has any to add, we can make a nice little list.

[lu_hawk]

If you raise someone and they think for a few seconds and reraise then they have the absolute nuts. This is very accurate from what I have seen.

[PotatoStew]

Lack of a pause (as in the draw example) is a much more reliable tell than the existence of a pause. It's too easy just to wait a few seconds before acting to throw people off. Also the pause could be from the person getting distracted or acting on another table etc. The lack of a pause is better, because most people won't rush things and deprive themselves of time to think just to throw people off.

[deacsoft]

Guys, guys, guys. I do not mean to say that you are wrong. You're not. These timing tells and such are so speculative. There are no grounds for these to be considered authentic. I usually have a good idea of what my next play will be before it is my turn to act in addition to I want the game to move as quickly as possible. So I act quickly the majority of the time. Does that mean I'm on the draw? Not at all. I also multitable quite frequently and it sometimes takes me a few extra seconds to act on one table because of being involved in a hand on another table or two. Does that mean I've got the nuts? Not at all. It could mean anything.

My main point is this: Unless you have notes/noticed that a specific player does one of these on-line tells regularly I would not even consider them. That's not to say that you shouldn't try to find a pattern, such as pausing a few extra seconds before betting means he has the nuts, in your opponents. Such a tell could prove to be profitable, but there is no default setting here that says, even in general, that it is true with "most" players.

My secondary point is this: There are many more proven and reliable things you could be doing with your time/efforts. Study game theory, read poker "text" books, review hand histories, etc., etc., are a few of those. We all can get better at poker, and searching for on-line tells is probably not profitable enough to make it worth the time and effort. Do yourselves the favor and don't put that much time in to it and don't over rate them.

[the deacsoft disclaimer]
These are my thoughts, suggestions, opinions, etc. They are not, nor do I believe them to be, gospel.

[niagarapoker]

[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
Just wondering how you guys can distinguish a contemplative pause from a slow computer connection

[bdk3clash]

If I bet, I either have a good hand or am bluffing.

[SumZero]

You can't. That's why the lack of a pause is more information than the presence of the pause.

But you don't need to be right 100% of the time for a tell to be useful. If 75% of the time it is for the tell reason and 25% of the time it is for a ranodm reason (slow computer connection, multiple tables, got up from the computer for a sec, etc.) that is still a really useful piece of information.

One tell that is pretty obvious is if it is folded to the blinds, and you are the sb, and you complete the bet, and the bb checks immediately, than at NL tournaments at least, odds are very good the bb has nothing and clicked check/fold and will likely fold to your bet on the flop as long as the flop isn't 3 rags that also hit the bb.