You can’t have a discussion about a hand of live poker without the question of ‘live reads’ or tells coming into play, and rightly so. Live reads can be one of the most important ways in which we can gain an additional edge in live poker. It’s easy to think that in online poker, such opportunities don’t exist – after all, we don’t get to look our opponents in the eye or gauge their body language.
However, this isn’t strictly true. We do have one area in which we can gain information from our opponents’ behaviours in online poker, in the form of timing tells. While the fact that this information will always be somewhat simplistic in nature does reduce our analysis to something of a rudimentary science, there are nevertheless some important nuggets of information we can gain from paying attention to the timing of our opponents’ checks, calls, bets and raises.
Position matters just as much as it always does
It’s crucial to consider every action in context. There are times when the speed of your opponent’s action doesn’t tell you anything at all, and times when it tells you a lot, and position is extremely relevant. For example, if your opponent snap-checks the flop after defending the big blind, it tells you virtually nothing, since most opponents will be checking almost 100% of flops in that spot anyway. In contrast, if your opponent snap-checks the flop out of position as the preflop raiser, that’s a rare occurrence which could mean a variety of things.
When your opponent is in position, bear in mind that they will be thinking about what to do while you’re thinking about acting, so a quick check or a quick bet means less than it otherwise would – unless you snap-checked, of course, in which case a snap-action from your opponent will be extremely rare. If you’re out of position and you spend a long time thinking about what to do, then any long period of contemplation from your opponent should be treated with suspicion, unless it’s an extremely complex spot.
Consider the significance and complexity of the spot
It almost goes without saying that everyone thinks a little bit harder in important spots. You’ll rarely see people tanking for a long time in the early stages of a tournament, because it simply doesn’t matter that much to them – they’re not so concerned about making a mistake. In contrast, the later stages will see people act a lot more slowly, so a longer tank doesn’t mean quite so much. Generally, the average decision time taken by players will increase as the tournament progresses.
In addition, it’s much more logical for someone to tank in a bigger pot (in terms of big blinds) than a smaller one, or in a more complex situation requiring multiple conflicting considerations. Thus, we should expect that a long period of thought prior to betting the river in a pot of 50 big blinds or more is most often genuine, especially if there was a significant amount of action on previous streets.
It’s also important to establish whether it’s possible your opponent could have planned their action on the previous street – for example, could they have been planning to c-bet almost any flop, or could they have been planning to fire a third barrel on almost any river – since in these circumstances, a rapid bet might not mean what it otherwise would. Since better players are likely to consider their actions at least one street ahead of time, it’s rare that you’ll see a player tank for a long time before firing a third barrel on the river. If it does happen, it’s probably because they genuinely had a decision to make.
Some of the ‘rules’ from live tournaments still apply
You may have come into contact with some of the more commonly-repeated presumptions about tells in live tournaments – ‘strong means weak, weak means strong’, a quick call is usually a draw, talkative players are usually strong, and a few more. Since a lot of these are based on simple human behavioural tendencies, they’re surprisingly relevant to online poker as well.
‘Strong means weak’ doesn’t apply in absolute terms – people are a lot happier to snap-act in online tournaments than in live ones, and therefore we can’t always read fast actions as weak and slow ones as strong. However, there are some commonalities, particularly from weak players. A long tank in a simple spot from a weak player will almost always be ‘Hollywooding’, a snap-bet (under 2 seconds of thinking) from a weak player will often be a bluff, and any weak player who tanks before raising on the turn or river will almost always ‘have it’.
A quick call in an online game on an early street will very often be a draw, much like live poker. Players know for sure that they don’t want to fold, but they’re not aggressive enough to consider raising. This isn’t quite so much the case with better players – these players may actually be more weighted towards very weak, float-type hands when they call quickly.
Finally, if you see someone talking in chat during a hand, that player is almost always going to have a strong hand. There’s no advantage in trying to engage them in conversation – you’re wasting time that you could be spending focusing on other hands on other tables. Just take note of the free information they give you, and use it against them.
Don’t over-think it!
Above all, remember that timing tells can be simpler than you think. Sometimes it really is exactly what it seems – if someone spends a whole minute tanking on the river, they probably have a tough decision. If someone calls very quickly, they probably have a hand they would never have considered folding. If someone raises very quickly, they’re much more likely to have a strong hand. Each of these truths goes double for weak players. Weak players are much less likely to pay attention to timing tells, and thus they’re more likely to give away information you can use.
The last thing to remember is to protect yourself from giving away info with your timing – don’t be too eager to raise the flop, don’t be too eager to 3-bet, and especially don’t snap-raise preflop in the late stages if you can help it. Snap-opening can hurt your image and cause players to play back at you a lot more during the times when better players are paying more attention. Consider taking the same amount of time – perhaps 5 seconds or 10 seconds – before each of your preflop decisions in the late stages. While tanking is certainly an epidemic in live poker at this point, that’s not the case online – nobody cares if you take an extra few seconds. Use that to your advantage and conserve information.
