In the casino card game of poker, a “tell” is some sort of physical giveaway that players use when competing against one another. Tells are used by a player’s opponents to try and get an idea of what that player might be planning, usually be trying to predict whether the player has a bad hand or not.
Learning to read and act on tells is quite a powerful skill to learn, and it can be most useful when playing in poker tournament and it’s easy to keep track of what the other players are up to. Fortunately, there are some common tells that most players tend to make use of, even if they’re not completely aware of it.
Posture
This is a tell that a lot of players tend to overlook, but it’s always worth keeping an eye for, and it’s usually reserved for those players that may have a particularly good hand – although this might not always be the case.
Those players that are extremely relaxed at the poker tables are the ones that typically a lot more experienced and aren’t as worried about being read by their competitors. It’s important to remember that not all tells are specific physical signals that are easy to pick up; it’s just as vital to try and get an idea of a person’s overall body language. If they’re acting fidgety and nervous, it’s likely that they might not have the best hand around. If they’re overly relaxed and look like there’s nothing wrong at all, chances are they have a strong hand.
Impatience
Another common tell among inexperienced players is clear impatience with the game. This usually indicates that the player in question has a much stronger holding and wants to keep the rounds moving as much as possible to build up the pot.
An experienced player is one that won’t want to give any information away at all, regardless of whether they have a strong or a weak hand. It’s also worth considering that there are a lot of extremely skilled players that might make it seem like they have a strong hand, only to switch up it later to spread confusion and get their opponents to look for tells that don’t exist.
Shaking Hands
This is one that a player will have to look out for specifically, but it can tell a lot about what another player might be dealing with, and it’s especially prevalent among inexperienced poker players. They might have a small shake, or they might fiddle with the chips in front of them, giving a clear indication that their nerves are getting the better of them.
This is usually caused by a player that has gone pretty far into the game and has a lot in the pot but has realised that their hand isn’t that strong and they’re hoping to get by without anyone calling them out. If shaky hands are going to give them away, they’re better off sticking to cutting edge games of video poker found at sites like ZAR Casino online rather than playing against other players. In online video poker, the game software can’t tell if you’ve got a nervous tick!