If you believe the movies, you might think poker tells are the main focus of the game. However, after playing yourself, you’ll understand the game is about strategy and probability, and may dismiss the idea of tells entirely. However, top professionals agree—tells in poker are real, and they matter. This guide will explain how to spot poker tells, how you should react, and how you can prevent giving them away yourself.
What are Poker Tells?
Poker tells are reactions given away by poker players which inadvertently give away information about the strength of their hand. They may be subtle eye or hand movements, or a verbal declaration which indicates whether the player is bluffing or not.
Recognizing how to read poker tells can be enormously profitable, making a massive difference to the edge you have in a game. It’s crucial to be aware of them, and not to give any away yourself.
Types of Poker Tells
- Physical tells: These relate to voluntary or involuntary physical behavior, like eye or hand movement, trembling, sweating, or the way a player handles his chips or cards.
- Verbal tells: Players who like to talk at the table, especially about their hand, can often give away indicators by failing to balance their statements.
- Betting tells: Overlapping with general poker strategy, players often give away indications about the strength of their hand with the size and speed of their bets or calls.
- Reverse tells: Reverse tells are made by players who attempt to exploit an opponent trying to read tells by seemingly giving them the opposite information. However, if done frequently, these can become straightforward tells.
The Psychology Behind Poker Tells
Poker tells are mostly about body language, but while you don’t have to be an expert psychologist to interpret them, there are also some factors you should be aware of before jumping in.
Subconscious Behaviors
Most tells are exhibited by players without realizing. At the poker table, there are many things to consider. For example, hand movement, eye movement, betting patterns, chip placement, checking cards, etc. And players often leave clues to their hand strength, particularly in a relaxed environment.
Cultural and Individual Differences
Some tells are more reliable across all player types, while others are particular to specific individuals. Nervousness is often seen as a sign of bluffing, but some players are the opposite, and are relaxed when making a big bluff. Knowing individual differences is crucial to correctly apply many tells.
5 Most Common Poker Tells and How to Spot Them
Reading poker tells require you to know what you’re looking for. These five types of behavior are common and are the best place to start.
1. Eye Movements and Gazes
Many players are inconsistent with eye movements, and can indicate strength or weakness by their willingness to look at a player, or determination to stare them down. This behavior tends to be different for each individual, however, so it’s crucial to know your customer before acting.
Some players wear sunglasses to try and avoid this, although it can give them a false sense of security, which makes them more susceptible to giving away other tells in poker.
2. Hand and Chip Movements
Pay attention to the number of chips used to bet. Often, players who bet with one chip will have value, whereas a stack of several chips is more likely to be a bluff. Checking cards can also be a useful source of tells. Many players who look down at strong hands like A-A or K-K quickly protect their cards and rarely look at them again, whereas repeated checking of cards can indicate weaker hands.
3. Facial Expressions and Microexpressions
Facial expressions are another major way in which players can give off tells. Slight changes in demeanor, lip biting, and involuntary, brief microexpressions can all indicate nervousness or confidence, and will often be given away without a player even realizing.
However, nervousness alone is not a reliable indicator of hand strength. Some players are relaxed when bluffing, but become nervous with a big hand. For these tells, it’s crucial to know your customer.
4. Change in Tone of Voice and Speech Patterns
One of the most reliable speech tells is if an opponent rules out a particular hand. “I don’t have the nut flush”, for example, rules out a value hand, something that opponents who are bluffing are much less likely to do. They may be telling the truth, but holding another strong holding like a King-high flush or a full house.
5. Inconsistent Responses
Further to speech play, players may also give inconsistent responses when talking about their holding, or make a statement which is incongruous with their play. Other times, players may become suddenly defensive or argumentative, which can often be a source of tells.
These tells are not reliable for all players, so should be used for known individuals only. If you play regularly with a player, it could be a goldmine of information.
Betting Patterns as Poker Tells
The size and speed of your opponents bets is one of the best poker tells to be aware of. While not a physical tell, this is often the most useful source of information from your opponent, and is unique in that it can also be used for online poker tells as well as live ones.
1. Unusual Bet Sizes
There are many players who give away a few physical tells, but declare the strength of their hand according to their bet sizing. This is the most common online poker tell, where you won’t be able to study body language. Very weak players will display this before the flop. It raises small or limping with speculative hands like 3-3 or 7-6s, but opening to large sizes like 5 or 6 big blinds with strong hands like J-J or A-K.
2. Speed of Betting
Another tell which can also come in useful online as well as live is an opponent acting rapidly. A very quick reaction indicates that the opponent did not have to think about the situation, which can mean different things depending on the scenario.
A very quick call
This suggests the opponent has a hand which is clearly not good enough to raise, yet too strong to fold. This is often a one-pair hand, but could also be a flush draw or open-ended straight draw for passive players.
A very quick bet
This can be a tell if the opponent bets quickly when the board changes significantly. An opponent immediately betting when the turn brings in the flush may suggest a bluff, as a value hand would have to consider the situation thoroughly.
A very quick check
If the opponent has the opportunity to probe the turn or river, but immediately checks, this often indicates a very weak hand that nonetheless has some showdown value, such as ace high, or 3-3 on K-J-Q-8.
Counteracting Poker Tells: How to Stay Unreadable
As well as reading poker tells, it’s crucial to make sure you don’t give any away yourself. This section will tell you how to maintain your poker face.
1. Develop a Consistent Routine
In order to shut down and stop yourself from giving away any tells, follow the golden rule and be consistent. Always put your chips into the pot in the same way, and either always announce the bet size, or never announce it. Take some time with each of your decisions to balance timing.
2. Reverse Tells: Mislead Your Opponents
Some players like to throw an extra complication into the mix and practice ‘reverse tells’, where they deliberately feign a tell to appear like they are bluffing when strong, and vice versa. In general, this is not advised.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Reading Poker Tells
When using poker tells, it’s easy to fall into pitfalls and make a serious blunder instead. These are the most common mistakes to avoid.
| Common Mistake | Description | How to Avoid |
| Tunnel vision | Players overly focus on tells, and ignore other relevant information such as hand strength, bet sizing, ICM, or other important factors. | Don’t rely solely on tells. Tells are just one piece of information among many, and should be just one of many considerations in your decision. |
| Confirmation Bias | Players imagine small, insignificant movements to be tells out of a preconceived desire to believe their opponent is weak or strong. | Know the tells you’re looking for, and only react if you see them. If you observe unusual behavior you’ve never seen before, note it down for the future. |
| Ignoring Player Types | Players act on a tell which is reliable for one player, but is not reliable for the player pool as a whole. | Know which tells are player-specific, and which ones only apply to certain players. Categorize them in your head accordingly. |
| Forgetting Cultural Differences | Players act on tells which are very reliable in their own locale, but apply them to visitors or when playing abroad. | Place much less emphasis on tells if playing in a different country or playing a visiting opponent. |
| Focusing on individual tells | Players may spend their entire time trying to gain a specific tell, and ignoring other potential sources of tells. | Be aware of the full range of behavior your opponent is exhibiting. Don’t just focus on their eyes or hands – consider everything. |
Conclusion
While tells are not as significant in poker as much of the media and many amateur players would have you believe, they definitely exist. Few top professionals discount them entirely, especially live players, and they have decided the fate of countless hands even in high roller games.
Experiment with applying this guide in small stakes games at first, take note of your opponents behavior, and begin applying them to your game to give yourself another edge over the field.