No Limit Hold ’em - Tells to Look for
Let me start off by saying that I’m not a big believer in the power of tells. This is probably due to two factors. First, I am predominantly a limit betting poker player, and in limit games picking up tells just isn’t very important. Secondly, I fully subscribe to the notion that most poker players approach the game according to set patterns and habits, and that if you can trouble yourself to learn which particular patterns and habits a player has fallen into you have gained far more useful information then you ever will by trying to pick up tells.
That said, there are a couple tells that I have found to be particularly useful at the no limit tables, and I will share those with you here. As with everything else in poker, these tells are not set in stone. Sometimes a player will exhibit one of the following mannerisms, and will flip over a hand that I didn’t at all expect to see. On the balance, however, it’s my opinion that the following tells are uncommonly reliable.
- When a player looks down at his chips immediately after the flop comes, he has a big hand.
I actually learned about this tell from Mike Caro’s seminal book “Caro’s Book of Poker Tells”, and while I found most of the information in the book to be of limited value, this is one tell that I think he assessed correctly. Note: this tell does not refer to a player who looks down at his chips before he bets. Everyone does this, since you need to look down at your stack to see which chips you’re going to bet with. What we’re referring to here is when a player looks down at his chips immediately after seeing the flop, even when it isn’t yet his turn to act. The rationale here is that a player now anticipates adding chips to his stack, and wants to steal a glance at his chips to see how much he’s going to be able to bet when the action gets to him. If you see a player make this move adjust your play accordingly.
- When the quiet guy suddenly gets chatty he has a big hand.
Another dead giveaway. If a guy who hasn’t said word one for 45 minutes suddenly starts carrying on like a morning DJ on a radio show when the action gets to him you can be fairly sure he’s got the goods. The idea behind this tell is that the player in question is trying rouse the curiosity of his opponents by chatting up a storm, and perhaps goad them into making a call. Also, since he feels very comfortable with the strength of his hand he’s willing to relax and talk a bit. This tell does not apply to guys who gab constantly at the table (think Scotty Nguyen); only to guys who usually keep their mouth shut.
- If a player bets quickly he’s bluffing.
When we say quickly we mean relative to how quickly he usually bets. Some players will take about ten seconds to put in a bet when they have a ‘real hand’, while others will put on an Oscar-worthy performance for a few minutes before finally committing chips to the pot. Pay attention to how long it takes each of your opponents to bet when they have a made hand, and then compare that to how long it took them to bet in the hand in question. Virtually nobody will sit there and study the board, seemingly agonizing over their hand, and then put in a big bluff. If a guy is going to bluff he usually knows he’s going to go for it before it’s his turn to act, and he rarely wastes much time before betting.
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