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Poker is a game based on information availability. We don’t ever know for sure how good or bad another player’s hand is, often until it’s too late. But because poker is a game of human interaction, we sometimes receive clues from other players, based on changes in their betting patterns or their physical demeanour, which indicates the strength or weakness of their hand. These are called “poker tells”.

A player gains an advantage if he observes and understands the meaning of another player’s tell, particularly if the poker tell is unconscious and reliable. Sometimes a player may even fake a tell, hoping to induce his opponents to make poor judgments in response to the false poker tell. After all, poker is a game of deception.

A good poker player must know when to raise or fold. It is not a good idea to raise when you have a really bad hand, so the best thing to do is fold and quit while you can. When you get a really. Fold A player is said to be folding their hand if they discard it when it is their turn to take an action in a betting round. In most poker games, folding is done by returning the hand to the dealer, or by placing it in the muck yourself. Folding does not cost the player anything in money, but also does not gain the player anything monetarily. Knowing when to fold in poker is about understanding expected value (EV). Over the long term, if calling or raising loses more money than folding does, then the correct play is to muck your hand. As you study and learn more and more about ranges you will know that making correct folds does not take clairvoyance. If you make a bet or a raise and you know the BE% of that bet, and you know your opponent’s going to fold, more often than your BE% you can find tons of easy bluffs. This is a major focal point in my entire poker strategy. Looking for situations where my opponent is likely to fold too often given the size of my bet or raise.

The Two Forms of Poker Tells

Poker tells come in two forms;

• Betting patterns
• Physical tells

Betting patterns are the most dependable poker tells. By studying the way a player bets both past and present, you will have more information and be better able to judge whether to check or bet. Betting patterns will remain your main tells.

How To Know When To Fold In Poker Winnings

Physical tells, many of which are dramatized in movies and television, are the most fun and will be the focus of this lesson.
Obviously these are only applicable to live poker, where they can help a player win some crucial pots over a lifetime. Unless you are a savant, learning and analyzing a cluster of tells does take some work.

Spotting Accurate Poker Tells is Hard

What makes tells hard to implement is the way they vary from player to player. For example, a player may throw his chips into the pot with force, and then leave his hands out near the action. For most players this means a big hand, for other players, it is a bluff. Some poker tells are false, many are contradictory, and some are just downright unreliable. There is no magic to it.

As you make observation a habit, you will learn to sift through these multiple tells and notice that the first tell is very often genuine, and the shortest tell is the most reliable. Most long, drawn out tells are false, set up to confuse. We have all seen a Hollywood tell as someone makes a screwed up face of displeasure and then bets! The general rule is that weakness usually means strength, and strength usually means weakness. But, you must decide how much weight to give a tell at any given moment. If you make learning tells fun, it will be an ever-changing, exciting part of your poker arsenal.

A List of Common Poker Tells

There are many types of poker tells. The lists that follow in this lesson should only be used as a general guide. The reliability of each varies, and guessing the reliability of each poker tell is an art form. Many tells mean strong with one player and weak with another, it is up to you to tell the difference by being observant.

Poker tells before the cards are in the air

• Watch how players buy in. Do they buy in for a full rack or a short one?
• If a player buys his chips in a loud, flamboyant, money waving act, he will likely play that way.
• A conservative approach to dressing often means a conservative style of poker.
• Sloppy chips stack, usually means sloppy play.
• Do they handle their chips like they know what they’re doing, or do they fumble around like a rank amateur?

Poker tells that may indicate a strong hand

• Fluid speech.
• Shaking hands.
• Full relaxed lips.
• A full, ear to ear, relaxed smile.
• Eyes open, not blinking.
• Stares at flop, and then glance out of corner of eye at players.
• Blood pressure is up. Red in the face or throbbing vain in neck or head.
• Drawing in a big breath, nose flaring, and rapid breathing usually mean ready for action.
• Glancing at chip stacks (their own or yours) to see how much to bet.
• Impatient, wants to bet.
• Suddenly sits back in chair, relaxed, calling or betting.
• Suddenly sits up in chair, becomes very attentive.
• A player’s hands or fingers going closer toward the action, toward the middle of the table.
• Anything held up in the air, shoulders, head, nose, fingers, thumbs, or eyebrows arching.
• Sliding chips delicately, quietly into the pot.
• Look at flop then glancing intensely at players.
• Cheek muscles start to flex.
• Some players try to act relaxed, looking off at a TV or a waitress, and then betting.
• Pupils of eyes get bigger.
• Protecting hole cards more than normal.
• Acting weak by making a noise, sighing or shrugging as they call or raise. (Why give away information when you do not have to? This one is a classic “weakness means strength”.)

Remember, some of these poker tells are more reliable than others. While most poker experts suggest you watch your opponent’s eyes, I suggest looking at his hands. That trembling hand syndrome is usually the sign of a good hand, and it’s the kind of tell that can’t easily be controlled either, so it’s generally reliable.

Poker tells that may indicate a weak hand

• Incoherent, forced, high pitched, slow, broken, or unnatural speech.
• Holding breath and not moving.
• Putting chips into the pot with great force.
• Staring right at you. (Strength means weakness.)
• Picking up a handful of chips like they will go into the pot if you bet.
• Play acting like they are going to turn their cards over prematurely.
• Checking hole cards after flop.
• Treating their hole cards carelessly.
• Inhales when misses and stares blankly into space.
• Breaths through mouth when worried.
• Licking or sticking out lips.
• Lips tense, and get smaller.
• Upper lip develop stiffens.
• Biting lip.
• Tongue in cheek.
• Covers mouth.
• Eyes squinting.
• Eyes blinking.
• Eyeballs rolling.
• Hand over eyes.
• A fake smile.
• Nail biting.
• Hugging oneself.
• Hands and arms go toward the body, toward safety.
• Rubbing of hands, arms, legs, neck, hair, nose, lips, and chin, to pacify oneself.
• Nervously pressing and wring ones hands till knuckles turn white.
• If they stop riffling chips, shaking leg, grinding teeth, tapping, chewing toothpick or gum.

That’s quite a list. Pick a few and see if you can spot any tells next time you play live poker. Now let’s look at some of the fundamentals to successfully spotting tells and other factors you need to consider.

Beginner Poker Tells

It’s important to recognize that beginners will not go to great lengths to confuse you with reverse tells. Don’t read too much into their bet timing or the body language they are giving off. If you are going to look for tells, just know that the most obvious ones are going to be the most accurate.

Online Poker Tells

Since you can’t physically see your opponents when playing online, the physical tells we’ve mentioned are clearly not going to apply. Remember though, that betting patterns are the most reliable of all poker tells. Look out for changes in a player’s betting pattern and observe their timing. A large amount of time before calling can sometimes mean a weak hand, and a fast call usually means a drawing hand. However, timing tells aren’t always reliable, since for all you know the online player is also reading a book, watching TV, or rushing back from the bathroom.

Practice is the Key

Looking for poker tells does not come naturally for most of us. But, after a while you will observe the flow and motion of the table, sifting through countless confusing bits of information, calculating whether to check or bet, all the while relaxing, having fun, talking, ordering drinks, and doing some cheap chip tricks. Once you learn to read the cards (mathematical odds and technical aspect) what is left? Reading people!

You can’t study everyone and everything at once. So focus attention on individual players during your poker session, and never fail to watch a showdown while replaying what you observed during the hand and correlate it with the hands the combatants turn up. The very best time to study your opponents is when they’re involved in a hand and you’re not.

Practice is the key to reading any tell. Whether you are a trained observer in poker or a trained criminal scene investigator (CSI), the key word is trained. Learning the poker tells listed above all at one time is difficult. It is more fun to learn a couple every time you play. For an example, one night at your casino, home or bar game pick a player and watch his energy levels. While he won’t go from nearly comatose to sitting bolt upright in his seat, most players do shuffle around in their chair and sit upright when they have a good hand – or at least a hand they intend to play. Watch everyone’s posture all night and it will become a habit and you will ‘train’ yourself to be observant at the table.

Another way to train yourself is to observe just one or two players for the first 10 minutes and then gradually add other players to the mix. Start with the player closest to you, because they are the ones that affect your play the most. For instance, can you tell if the players to your left are going to fold or raise? Can you tell if the opponents on your immediate right are calling with a big hand or just want to see a cheap flop? Here’s a tip – players with cards cocked in their hand who look like they’re ready to pitch them to the dealer when it’s their turn to act usually do just that. It’s not a universal poker tell, but it’s accurate more often than not.

Setting Up False Poker Tells

You do not want to give off tells, so watch yourself. Do you lean toward the action when you have a good hand? Try this – when you have a marginal hand (such as JT on the button) sit up in your chair, be obvious, squirm around a little, raise the pot, and look at the other players. Notice who looks at you. You just gave them a false tell. They think you have a big hand. Bet the flop and watch them fold. Note which players are not sophisticated enough to notice your Academy Award performance, and be aware of the players that do not ’seem’ to notice but are thinking, was that for real, and who is this hot dog.

Don’t Overestimate the Importance of Tells

Some poker players spend way too much time searching for unconscious poker tells and greatly overestimate there importance. Every poker player knows that they are supposed to hide their emotions and disguise their true intentions. Even people who don’t play poker know this. Sure, some players will exhibit obvious physical tells from time to time, but the conscious things that poker players do at the table are of far greater significance.

Focus on the bigger picture first and categorize your opponents. Are they tight-aggressive? Are they loose-passive? How tricky are they? Putting players into broad categories that define their playing style and tendencies will help you far more than concentrating on the small and unconscious things.

Conclusion

Physical poker tells are nowhere near as important as studying betting patterns and playing styles. Once you have mastered these then, and only then should you look for the classic poker tells that many players exhibit. But tells are fun, and very few players concentrate on this part of the game – so you will have an advantage. Granted, poker tells will not make you money on every hand or every hour, but over time, they will add to your profitability. In any business, if you could increase profits you’d be very happy.

By David Sasseman

David lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and has played over a million hands online and many thousands of hands in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Las Vegas casinos.

If someone based their entire understanding of poker around what they saw on TV or in movies, they might think that folding is a horrible thing to do. Invariably, on-screen heroes always either have an amazing hand or make a perfect bluff to win the pot at all costs. In the real world, this is not how poker works. Folding, and all of the other possible actions, are merely tools to be used for maximizing profit and minimizing losses.

When you fold your cards in poker you are no longer involved in the hand and lose all of the money that you have invested in the pot up to that point. Once your cards go into the “muck”, the hand is over for you. While you can no longer win the hand, you also cannot lose any more money or chips until the next hand.

What Happens When You Fold?

Once you click that fold button, toss your hand into the muck, or verbally indicate that you are folding, you are done with the hand. If other players are involved, play continues. If you are heads-up, your opponent scoops the pot and the next hand begins.

How to Fold

In online playing, folding is easy. You simply click the fold button. In live play, there are a few more things to consider. Unless the hand is over when you fold and you have a good reason, you should never show your cards. To do so in the middle of the hand is both against the rules and a serious breach of etiquette as it can give unfair information to one or more players. If the hand ends when you fold, then it is okay to “fold and show.” However, really good players almost never do this. Poker is a game of information, and giving any extra amount of information to your opponents is rarely a good idea.

When Should I Show My Folded Cards?

The only time you should ever consider showing a folded hand is when you are trying to cultivate an image. Note that I said the word “consider.” Often, even when we show a hand for what we think is a constructive reason, it ends up still giving away too much information or has the opposite effect than we hoped it would.

For example, we are late in a tournament as on the bubble. We shove all-in with our short stack twice in a row, the first time with trash and the second time with A9. Since A9 is a reasonable hand to shove there, we flip our cards over, after everyone has folded, to “prove” to the table that we are not a maniac and our shoves really are reasonable and should command respect. At first glance, this looks like a really good idea. Maintaining our fold equity is really nice late in a tournament, since blinds are typically so high, and winning them without a fight is worthwhile.

The only problem with the example is that we could shoot ourselves in the foot. Let’s say we pick up QQ, KK, or AA very soon after showing our A9 and once again, we shove all-in. Now, the player in the big blind looks down at KQ, which would normally be an easy call for him. However, instead, he folds since he now thinks we are tight and only shoving Ax hands or better. Boom, we just lost a really amazing chance to double up.

When Should I Fold?

A hand should be folded when there are no profitable actions left to take. You are essentially waving the white flag and surrendering the chips or money you have already invested into the pot. However, just because you lose some chips, it does not mean you are making a mistake or have done anything incorrectly in the hand.

Folding Is Part of Any Winning Strategy

How To Know When To Fold In Poker Table

At the moment, it might seem like you are losing money when you fold your hand. While this is true, it doesn’t mean that you made a mistake. All it means is that you did not have any other profitable options. In fact, a fold is nothing more than a way to cut your losses when all else fails.

During the course of play, one will often be faced with aggression, ie. betting or reraising you. When this occurs you usually have 3 options; you can either reraise, call, or fold. A skilled poker player will weigh his or her options and decide if reraising or calling is profitable, or wins money over the long term. If both of those options are losing plays, then the only thing that can (and should) be done, is fold.

It’s Impossible to Win Every Hand

You may have heard the term “maniac,” or even seen apparently crazy people at your table who seem to bet and raise every single time it’s possible, refusing to fold until the bitter end. Sometimes these players will amass huge chip stacks and strike fear in the hearts of everyone at the table. However, as the saying goes, “easy come easy go,” maniacs always end up crashing and burning, once the good players at the table adjust to them. In fact, my favorite type of opponents are ones who have a hard time folding hands.

Ultimately, winning poker decisions all come down to a question of maximizing our expectation in every choice we make. It’s all about making the decision that either wins the most or loses the least. While you should be looking to make the play that wins the most over the long term, what you should not be doing is attempting to win every single hand you play. Therein lies the difference.

Since our opponents will be picking up valuable hands some of the time, taking the approach of trying to bluff them or blow them off their hand every time we are involved is the wrong mindset to take. If your sole focus is unrealistic, since it’s an impossible task anyway, then your end result will almost always be negative, barring some terrific heater during a particular session. Over the long term, being a maniac will guarantee that you end up broke.

It’s About Expected Value

Expected value, or EV, is what drives profit in poker. If the sum of our actions (bets, calls, folds) in a particular hand leads to profit over the long term, were the hand played over and over infinite times, then our line has a positive expected value, or is +EV. Determining whether our actions are +EV is the difficult part.

Sometimes choosing the +EV action is obvious. If someone shoves all-in pre-flop and we hold AA, we can be 100% sure* that our action is going to make us money in the long term. On the other end of the spectrum, many losing decisions are easy to spot as well. Imagine we have 72o and someone shoves all-in pre-flop. Unless we already have a ton of money invested in the pot, this is always an easy fold and we can be sure we are making the correct play.

Unfortunately, a large number of our decisions are not so obvious. These gray area situations are what separates the really good players from the rest. Even so, by building a strong fundamental strategy that places yourself in profitable spots often, can minimize the number of tough decisions one must face during a session.

By playing a selective range of hands, choosing to play in position more often than out of position, and taking the lead in the majority of hands one plays, so-called “difficult” spots become a lot rarer. Then, once someone gains a lot of experience, finding the easiest path to profit becomes second nature. Careful study, along with the use of software programs, can expedite the process. Additionally, reviewing hands you have played and seeking out better ways of playing them, will help you avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

The entire point here is that no emotion should ever be attached to a particular action or line in poker. The only thing that should ever be in our primary focus is which actions are profitable, or better yet, which actions are most profitable. Since, often, more than one course is +EV.

Conclusion

In summary, while learning poker you should not view folding as something negative or as the unhappy finale to a misplayed hand. Instead, you should see it as a means to limit your losses and escape from undesirable or unprofitable situations. Folding is your friend!