When you are playing poker face to face, you can gain an advantage if you are able to bluff your opponent, or to guess when they are bluffing. The ways that players give away the quality of their hand – such as twitching, breathing differences, etc, are called ‘tells'.
You can sometimes get an idea of a players hand online too – although there are less possible tells for you to read. Most of them tend to depend on the speed with which a turn is played, and the action that they take. This is not a fool-proof way to read players – their speed could be affected by other things going on around them, or they could be playing several tables at once.
The position you hold at the table can affect your play – if you seated in an early position, you will have to act before many other players, and would generally need a stronger hand to make it worth raising. If you are seated later, you have a chance to see how your opponents play before making your own decision.
Many players will raises with an uncertain hand so that they force others to respond – either by folding, or indicating how strong their hand is by calling. Even if his hand is not strong now, he has a chance that when he draws another card, his hand will improve.
Conversely, some players may call in an early round so that they can set up a bluff for a later round.
If you frequently play in casino with the same people, it is worth watching their betting style, as this is often much more reliable than physical tells, which many people can control or fake. |
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