Online Bluffing in Poker Games
Online players have no body language to evaluate their thoughts, but actions do. Tells are simply the act of inadvertently betraying information. You don’t need to be seen, or even have a body for that.
A tell can be any activity that that reveals useful information to your opponents. When players played at two tables at a time at most, stalling is one of the most obvious, and exploitable actions. Inexperienced players stall before betting the river when they have a powerful hand, as if unsure of what to do. Stalling though unreliable, is still a tell . It is just harder to decipher what it means in each case.
Stalling now occurs when a player breaks from their usual betting patterns. For instance, if a player has been playing one , two , three- apparently with a good connection and only playing one game – but then suddenly starts stalling, this will almost always mean something. On the other hand, if a player who has been playing slowly suddenly is making bets promptly as soon as it is his turn, this means something also. It will not have the same meaning in all cases, but simply being aware that an opponent has altered their normal behavior will almost always be helpful in that it should wave a caution flag in front of your eyes.
Evaluating betting patterns is an enormous part of playing winning online poker: speed of bet, call or raise, sizing of bets in pot limit or no limit. A large percentage of online players now are regulars. They play a lot, which means they get into rhythms or habits. Standard rhythms are observable and exploitable, but any deviations from the norm represent the key moments to focus on. You don’t want to call someone’s all-in bet when they deviate because they have the nuts, but you do want to call when they deviate because they have a busted draw in a key pot- pay attention , their moves could be your profit!
Many online poker tells are the result of bad players telling you that they are about to play even worse than normal. The most obvious of these announcers is The Rant. Flawed players go on tilt in all sorts of poker games, and online is no exception. The thing about online is bigmouths and bullies can’t glare at, roll their eyes or do some other belittling physical action. But through the chatbox they can insult fellow players. They can’t change the deck but they can rant about software being rigged.
A player who goes on a rant about stupid players or rigged software might just as well say I am a loser. Besides obviously horrible players, ranters are THE players to target in any game, even more so than obvious multi-tablers. You want to play against people on tilt, but you also want to be sure you don’t take them off tilt by playing a weak hand at them that helps them to calm down. Go ahead and goad abusive players in the chatbox. These are almost always players who think they are far better than they are, and play considerably worse when losing than when winning. They will often make the game. Value the ranters. To a large degree, winning poker is about defeating people who act stupidly as well as skill. Ranters are at the top of the list.Chat revoked players fall into this category as well.
The Gloat. Though not always true, players who like to gloat after winning a pot are normally significant, long term, losers. Someone who regularly wins doesn’t need to draw attention to that fact. Someone who is seldom a significant winner and needs to draw attention to that fact will be insecure as well as weak-playing. Gloaters are much easier to bluff after they begin to gloat, because they hate to now seem like a loser. They don’t mind folding on the flop, or on the turn when an overcard hits, because they can pretend they got sucked out on. What they hate to do is be beaten on the river by an opponent with a superior hand. Gloaters can go on mega-tilt if they start losing after gloating, but more often they tighten up and enjoy their moment. They don’t get them very often.
The Smart Guy. Any player who sees fit to lecture about how to play, and then is blatantly wrong, is a short term target. These players almost never last very long, are often inexperienced and are seldom exploitable over time.
Online tells almost always give you information, but don’t confuse “it means something” with “it means the same thing in every situation.” Using the “in turn” betting buttons is a good example. Using the auto-check almost always means weakness, but the auto-bet and auto-raise buttons can have very different meanings depending on the street where the betting occurs. Auto-raise before the flop is surely always a sign of real strength (unless a player is a maniac or obviously tilting). Auto-raise on the flop will more often be a sign of false strength, where someone is trying to protect a marginal hand.Like everything else you have to flush out what it means as the cards unfold.
When playing online you can’t see your opponents body language, but you can see what they DO online. Just like in the rest of life, what people actually do is what matters. Their moves reveal their confidence, skills, maturity and experience. The betting actions and chat behavior of opponents provides alot of information that you can use. It may not be easy to decipher online tells but that is the very fact that makes them all the more important.