Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 28 August 2008 / Leave a comment

Poker is a radically different game online than it is live. Although the basic mechanics of the game remain the same, there is much less information available live that there is online.

There are no physical tells, like the way a player throws their chips into the pot, or if they are shaking, that can be observed and acted upon. This perhaps explains why the internet quickly developed so many players who have a very sound technical knowledge of the game - you simply have to in order to survive in a world where people reading skills are not needed. As a result, many people who play online simply don't even bother looking for tells, although if you look carefully there is actually a wealth of information available to an observant player.

One of the most important of these tells is how long a player takes to act. Many players online tend to make their decisions very quickly, and this can reveal a great deal about their hand strength when they have to think about something. Players who are suddenly thinking about a play are usually in a marginal spot or thinking about how to get the most value out of a hand, and this can often fill in some vital chapters in the general story of the hand. From my own experience, I find that players tend to act faster when they are bluffing and slower when they are value betting - probably because bluffing can feel quite compulsive compared to the more calculated feeling associated with value betting. A shove after a few seconds thought is usually much less dangerous than one after twenty or thirty.

It is also important to focus on making your own game as devoid of these time tells as possible. My routine for this is usually to have the pre fold button clicked pre flop if I intend to fold, and nothing clicked if I intend to play a hand. If I decide to play a hand, I will typically think for a few seconds before doing anything - even if it is a simple decision. I try and follow this routine of thinking about all moves for a little while on all streets, as not only does it make my game harder to read, but it is also scarier for your opponents, as they will think that each move you make is being calmly considered (even if you are desperately screaming 'FOLD!' at your monitor in reality).

Try and plug the tells in your own game, while trying to pick up as many from the players around you as possible. It could well be that maximizing your profit is just a matter of time...