poker tells

The eyes truly are windows to the soul. They will tell if someone is lying or not. First you have to understand that when people lie they will look either left or right. It may be just an instant flicker of the eye.




It is very difficult to spot this tell. Mainly because the flicker of eye movement is so brief as almost not to be seen at all. You must pick one player at a time and concentrate on him or her. Trying to access the mass of information and tells coming from several poker players at the same time is just going to confuse you. Pick a guy, or two. Look at the stacks of chips around the table. What stack is the biggest? Start with him. Watch his eyes carefully as he plays. Every bet, raise, reraise and even a check can be a lie.



If you are going to determine if someone is a right looker or a left looker pay a lot of attention to the table talk. When your target joins in keep a lock on his eyes. People lie all the time, not just when they are betting. It is a long process because you have to match what you thought to be a right look tell to the final result of the hand. Did the right look on the reraise before the flop mean that he was bluffing, trying to buy a free card, or was it a genuine tell?



You may have noticed that lots of the poker stars wear sun glasses or a hat pulled down low over their eyes. The reason is that looking left or looking right is an involuntary tell. It is not something that can be controlled or faked. It is a genuine tell.



You will see all kinds of advice on the Internet about poker tells



Including the one about the player who makes forceful moves to raise a pot. The theory being that he is being forceful to intimidate folks because he is bluffing. Since almost everybody on the planet earth has read about the Top Ten Poker Tells you can pretty much bet that there are players out there who are using them as disinformation. Take the guy who makes a dramatic raise with lots of sound and fury. The conventional wisdom is that he is bluffing. Of course, he knows the conventional wisdom and might be into the high drama to get you to call. Be wary of such pat solutions to the complicated and time consuming problem of the tell.



The Facial Expression Tell



Is another good one. Don't ever suppose for one minute that a poker player would have sense enough to grimace in horror when he has a terrific hand and wants to suck you in as deep as possible.



Or The Chip Stacking Tell



Never in a million years would a tight aggressive player have a messy chip stack. Unless, of course, he wanted to pretend that he was a loose aggressive player.



The Peeking At Hole Cards Tell



Imagine that. Anybody who from time to time, has not forgotten what hole cards they have does not play much poker. If you assume that just because they look that they do not have a good hand you are going to go broke.



Facial Expression Tell



If you see a poker player grimace when he looks at his pocket cards; it may well indicate that he has a bad hand. Or, it may be that he wants you to think that he has a bad hand. If the grimace does not follow with a folding of his cards. Be very wary. Like wise if he shows a confident smile.



All Of The Above Tells



Have been to widely publicized to be of any value. Every person is a unique individual and his tells will be unique and individual to him. There is simply no shortcut when studying tells. You have to put in the time and energy and forget the short cuts.



Your Tells



The most important thing that you can do is to make sure that you do not have any tells of your own. The shaking hands, nervous itch, or facial tick can all be eliminated by practice. Put a mirror next to your monitor when you play online and see what you are giving away. If your hands shake when you have a good hand there is nothing to do about it except pile on the experience at the table. Be comforted that while you cannot see any tells when playing in an online poker room. No one can see yours either.