Three Reasons You Should Take Your Time

Recently, there’s been much debate in the poker world about shot clocks. In tournaments, particularly later into events, some players use a deliberate strategy to stall the game.

Traditionally, it’s been an unwritten rule of poker that you don’t take more time to make decisions than you need. But, especially in tournament play, there’s a clear incentive at certain points to slow the action to a crawl. Shot clocks seem like a sensible solution to move the action along and keep things fair.

In cash games, however, I feel shot clocks are totally unnecessary. The financial incentive to stall doesn’t exist in cash play. Some players will naturally play slower than others, and unless a particular player is really being disruptive to the game flow, I think players should more or less get the time they want to make decisions on their hands.

Today’s article isn’t about acting too slowly, however. It’s about how you can hurt yourself by acting too quickly on your hand. I’ve made countless instantaneous decisions on hands. Most of the time, these are no-brainer plays. But sometimes—far too many times over the years—I regret my hasty play, as I realize that I may have found a better play by taking a second or ten to think about it.

Here are three reasons you should slow down and take a brief pause before you make all important decisions.

Timing Tells

You give off timing tells when the speed with which you act gives away information about your hand strength. If you fold, these aren’t a concern. But when you call or raise, doing so too quickly can give your opponents more information than they are entitled to.

When players call a large bet quickly, for instance, it’s telling. Large bets usually require a decision—call or fold, or maybe call or raise. An instant call often means a hand for which neither folding nor raising makes sense, like a combination draw or a pair plus a strong draw.

These tells can be particularly telling in multi-way pots, because in these pots it’s hard to predict the action, so it’s also hard to make a decision ahead of time. Say it’s a four-handed pot on the flop, and the preflop raiser bets and two players call. If the final player calls quickly, it’s telling.

The final player couldn’t have known beforehand that the two players in between would call. Furthermore, most decisions become complicated by the extra players. With top pair, should you raise to charge draws? Should you be worried about your kicker and consider folding? With a set, should you raise immediately to avoid getting drawn out on?

Few hands are no-brainer plays after a bet and two calls on the flop. Hands that might qualify are medium strength drawing hands that are probably too weak to try to bluff through three opponents, but that are too good to fold.

Also hands like A-J on a A-9-5 flop might qualify. It’s too good to fold for one bet, even against three players. But raising could open a can of worms.

You can avoid these quick-to-act timing tells if you force yourself to take a moment before every post-flop decision. This is particularly a good idea in multi-way pots and on the turn and river when bets get big.

Bet-Sizing Tells

This one is similar to timing tells, but more subtle. In no-limit hold’em you can choose whatever size you like for your bets. For many players, this extra decision is more curse than blessing for two reasons. First, it’s easy to get the sizing wrong on a theoretical level. But, beyond that, the sizings people choose often give away information about their hands. Players tend to bet closer to $60 with this type of hand, but closer to $80 with that type.

Unlike timing tells, which come up only occasionally during play, bet-sizing tells are ubiquitous. Every time a player makes a bet, there’s potentially information embedded within the sizing choice.

Strong live players use these bet-sizing tells to guide their decision-making. Not only are the tells common and useful, but they become stronger and more useful the bigger the bets get. There may not be much information in the choice to bet $25 or $30 on the flop, but the choice to bet $180 or $230 on the river might be extremely telling. Obviously when you make your biggest bets is when you least want to be leaking information to your opponents.

The faster players act, the more subject they are to bet-sizing tells. That’s because when people make quick decisions, they tend to rely on emotion and intuition. As an opponent trying to interpret your bet sizing, I’d much rather try to reverse-engineer your emotional state rather than try to decode a more deliberate, logical process. That’s because humans are subject to only a handful of emotions at the poker table, while players’ logic is all over the map.

So if I see you bet $180 very quickly, and I think that amount is small for the situation, I might infer that you have some fear about the outcome. But if you make the same $180 bet after some obvious deliberation, I have to guess why you chose to make a small bet. Perhaps you are trying to get me to call. Perhaps you are concerned about what might happen if I call. Perhaps you are even trying to get me to fold by making me think that you are trying to get me to call.

In general, the faster you act, the more reliable the information you leak about your holding through your bet-sizing. This is information astute opponents will use against you.

Making Mistakes

Finally (and obviously), the faster you act, the more prone you are to making careless errors. Dozens of times I have folded a busted hand on the river, only to wish I’d spent at least a few seconds contemplating a bluff. A few times I’ve even misread a hand and called a big bet with what I thought was a ten-high straight only to find I actually held ten-high.

Often, if I look back at my biggest errors, I will find that I acted too quickly before the play. So it pays—especially in big pots—to take your time every time with every turn and river decision. Even if your hand is busted, it may still be worth a bluff. Even if you think you have an obvious call, you might be reading the situation wrong.

Final Thoughts

I’m obviously not advocating that you abuse your right to take time with your hands and slow every game to a crawl. When you get dealt 9-4 preflop, go ahead and fold it in turn.

But once a hand reaches the turn, it’s perfectly reasonable to take ten seconds to make your decision. Take that time. Do it, even if your play seems obvious. Do it, even if you are frustrated. (Especially if you are frustrated.) Just take that time, every time. Your play will improve for it ♠

Ed’s newest book, The Course: Serious Hold ‘Em Strategy For Smart Players is available now at his website edmillerpoker.com. You can also find original articles and instructional videos by Ed at the training site redchippoker.com.