How fast do you pick up on tells (1 Viewer)

[joeyshin]

The best "tells" come from bets, raises, calls and checks. Not how the chips are handled, but the actual action. Put the hand together so far and prosper.

As for twitchy hands, gum chewing, chip fondling, pupil watching and the rest - - - mostly it is garbage for the typical player. No doubt the best "readers" can do magic. The rest of us need a lot of observation to figure out what secrets people divulge by mistake.

And just when you think you know a long term villain, something strange will happen in their lives to throw everything off.

DrStrange

this ^^^

I’m pretty good at reading hands but it mostly comes from bet line hand progression and human tendencies.

I give off fake tells all the time to induce call or fold.

if you see a tell and it’s kinda obvious, I wouldn’t take it to mean much

 

[surfik]

Not really, but pick up the easy ones first. Low hanging fruit. See how many people behind you are waiting to bet or fold. If somebody acts out of turn because they are anxious, that's a giveaway tell. If somebody shrugs and shoves then follows it with "it's time to go home anyways"....that's a tell. If a card comes out and somebody immediately looks down at their chips then back up....that's a tell. These are easy to see. Spotting them is good...but how do you react to them is another.

All this being said, this stuff is not all that important to your overall win/loss rate as a new player. You would be much better served to learn how to play aggressive, read board textures, and learn how to extract value. This is the way....all the other stuff can come later.

This is the way....

 

[trigs]

Here's my post about tells from a previous thread: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/do-tells-exist.71601/

I'd say some of these can be seen almost right away and some require a lot more time before noticing them.

I don't know any tells that are universal. IMHO, they are all based on the individual, and even then, it can change game to game for the individual depending on how they're doing that day.

These are the easiest ones to pick up on in my opinion (but again, it's not always the case):

• player who normally isn't a chip shuffler reaches for and grabs chips before their action - they are going to bet/raise
• player who normally pays somewhat attention is suddenly completely uninterested in the hand or action before them (looking away, looking at phone, etc.) - they are going to fold
• player who talks a lot suddenly stops talking - they have a good hand
• player who rarely talks starts talking while action on them - they have a good hand
• player who is kind of holding their hole cards slightly off the table before their action (this might not be the best description but some people just hold/touch their cards differently when they are planning to fold) - they are waiting to fold
• capping or not capping their cards - if you are a card capper, then you definitely should cap them every time even if you plan to fold - probably the easiest tell I've ever seen people do

I also feel that a lot of people give off tells in the middle of the hand when their opponent reaches for their own chips. Depending on the player, people will hold their breath when they see their opponent reach for chips - could be good or bad though depending.

 

[Chip1525]

I once spotted a unique tell where an otherwise tough opponent would touch their nose every time they had the nuts or a strong made hand.

Around 3 or 4 showdowns validated this subtle but empirically reliable indicator. Every single time, there it was, and there was the winning hand.

I quietly congratulated myself on my powers of observation and proceeded to get stacked by triple barrelling when that opponent didn't touch their nose.

Turns out he had allergies and his nose was just itchy sometimes.

 

[Legend5555]

It depends on how often / how much time you want to spend using these methods to deduct information.

However, I've found these hands are often the difference between a winning and losing session (i.e biggest pots of the night), so it's kind of a moot point for me as to how often they're used.

But if you are losing on hands where your hand reading isn't great, then I don't think you are gaining much. I think you'd make more long term having strong hand reading and fundamental skills than relying on tells for your bottom line.