Playing poker online presents a brand new set of challenges, especially if you’re used to playing live at your local casino or home game. You’re stuck behind a computer screen, seated at a virtual table, and are only able to read your opponents’ screen names and chip stacks. Seems difficult, right? Becoming a successful online poker player is all about learning what tells your opponents will give you. If you can pick up on those, you’ll become a major force on the virtual felts. Gone are the days of looking to see whether someone is sweating it out or how they’re handle their chips. It’s all about picking up on the little nuances when you play online. Let’s review a few of the major poker tells that you can look for when you fire up your computer.

1. Speed of the bet. Unlike in live poker, where you can actually witness your competition as they pick up their chips and put their bets in the middle of the table, in online play, all you can detect is the amount that’s bet and the speed at which it occurs. When a player has an “auto” bet selected, their action occurs immediately. These are the options like Check/Fold, Call Any, and Check. If someone has one of these options chosen, he or she will act as soon as it’s their turn. I usually associate fast betting with a really strong hand in online poker. Yes, the person could be bluffing and yes, it’s conceivable that I might be giving up some value by folding, but it’s become apparent to me that people who select “Call Any” or bet really fast when it’s their turn typically have a hand that they like. As soon as their pocket pair found a set on the flop, they knew that “Bet Pot” was going to be their move when the action came to them.
2. Size of the bet. More often than not, larger bets mean a better hand. If someone hits “Bet Pot,” it’s because they actually want to take down the entire hand. It is possible that better players think about making value bets and try to extract the absolute most from their opponents in every single hand. However, the majority of the players that you’re going to run into online are pretty new to the game of poker. They associate premium hands with betting and garbage hands with folding. Consequently, online poker players typically bet big with winners and check or fold with losers. I am extremely afraid of players who bet the pot online. On the flip side, players who over-bet or under-bet the pot typically are on draws or are just plain bluffing (such as going all in for $100 into a pot of $20). In each case, the player is either trying to see a cheap card and bets small or bluffs by pushing.
3. Amount that players chat. In my experience, going after players who are chatting in the table’s lobby is particularly profitable. After all, extremely skilled players often play more than one table and don’t have time to sit around and trash talk or vent in the chat box. Rather, they are too busy folding, calling, and raising on six other screens. Those who are particularly gabby in the chat box are either overly-cocky or new to the game. In either case, they are prime candidates for you to attack when you play online poker on your favorite room. They’ll be the ones complaining about bad beats, saying how they’re busy playing other tournaments, and asking people what cards they held. Don’t let this fool you into thinking they are skilled players who you should avoid. Attack these players. However, I am not suggesting you avoid players who don’t chat at all. Rather, all I am saying is that players who talk a lot are good targets.
4. Buy-in amount. Good players don’t buy in for the table minimum (unless their bankroll has been taking an absolute beating). Skilled cash game players will buy in for the maximum amount allowed at a table. Novices, on the other hand, typically buy in for the table minimum. Watch the size of the chip stacks of new players who enter your ring game. If they have the minimum amount in front of them to begin with, attack. If not, utilize caution until you can accurately deduce what type of player they are. This point applies to ring games, which have a range of buy-ins for players to choose from.

There you have it. Those are four cues to helping you uncover the truth surrounding a player’s hand when you’re battling it out on your favorite online poker room. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you at the tables.