How To Expertly Read Your Opponents Online

Online poker is drastically different from in-person poker in many ways. Fewer hands are dealt and games are generally faster. However, the most significant difference is that you cannot read facial expressions online. Digital poker players don’t need to worry about maintaining a poker face: their reactions and emotions are concealed by their avatars.

Plus, many online poker sites are totally anonymous. No KYC casinos – which means ‘Know Your Customer’ – don’t require ID verification, which allows you to get involved in private poker tournaments. This can make poker as equally as challenging as it is thrilling, as you could be playing against the best online poker players without even knowing it! Some non-ID casinos are also crypto casinos, which creates further anonymity.

Luckily for fans of online poker, there are many alternative means of reading your opponents. In this guide, we’ll examine the main online poker tells that you should look out for to win big.

Bet Sizing

Bet sizing is an important tell in both online and in-person poker. Generally, a small bet suggests weakness and a big bet suggests strength – this is obvious. However, you should not assume this to always be the case. Bet sizing, when properly analyzed, can prove to be your biggest asset in online poker.

When you have a bad hand, it’s logical to bet minimally. This ensures that you lose the least amount of money and save cash for when you are dealt a better hand. When you have a good hand, it’s also logical to bet a large amount.

Players – especially inexperienced ones – generally stick to this bet sizing rule. However, experienced poker players may bet small to throw off other players, even when they have a medium-strength hand.

For this reason, it’s important to verify your suspicions before assuming them to be true. Wait and see if your opponent actually does have a bad hand when they bet small, and a good hand when they bet big. Once you’ve observed a few hands and confirmed your suspicion, you can start using it to your advantage.

Plus, if you notice that players stick to the standard small bet-big bet rule, chances are that they’re new players and don’t want to take any risks. Being new players, they probably have several other weaknesses you can take advantage of.

As a side note: Some novice players will bet a strange amount to make their bet appear bigger than it is. For example, they might bet $4.95 rather than $5. This way, they create the illusion that they’re betting more than they actually are. You should take note of odd bet sizes – especially odd numbers – as they can be a sign of weakness.

Timing Is Everything

Another important aspect of your opponent’s poker style that you must take note of is their timing. The length of time it takes them to make a move can reveal a lot about their confidence in the game.

Here are some of the tells related to timing that you need to look out for:

Instant check

One tell you need to look out for is an instant check. If a player decides to check instantly, it almost always means that they hold a weak hand. So weak, in fact, that they don’t even believe the hand is worth analyzing any further. A strong hand demands patience, as players need time to consider how much the hand is worth and analyze the opposition – this is not the case with bad hands.

However, like everything, there’s a slight chance that an instant check could mean something else. For example, an experienced player may check instantly to set up a trap. They’re experienced enough that they instantly recognize a good hand and don’t have to spend as long analyzing it. Plus, experienced players often play multiple tables at once, so don’t have time to spend ages analyzing their cards.

So, like anything in online poker, it’s important to wait a few hands before acting on your impulses.

Instant call

An instant call is a sign of a medium-strength hand. They know that their hand is too good to fold, but they also know that their hand is not yet strong enough to raise. In this scenario, the obvious thing to do is to call in the hope that an additional card will make their hand a strong one.

It could be a sign that your opponent already has a jack, queen, and a 10 of spades, and is now hoping to complete a straight.

Instant bet

Most of the time, an instant bet indicates player confidence. An instant bet suggests that the player is eager to build the pot rather than checking or calling. They know their hand is good and they believe it to be better than their opponents, so they want to make as much money from this round as possible – hence the bet.

However, be wary of experienced players who place an instant bet. It could mean that they’ve got a bad hand but want to bluff their opponents into folding. This way, they minimize the amount of money other players can win using a weak hand and deception.

Some player evaluations will help you determine what type of instant bet the player is making.

Betting after taking a long time

Interestingly, betting after taking a long time also mostly suggests that the player has a good hand. This action is often taken to deceive other players into thinking they have a weak hand. In reality, players who do this almost always have a strong hand.

Checking after taking a long time

On the other hand, if a player checks after taking a long while to think things through, it’s almost a guarantee that they have a weak hand. Why would they consider so long only to check?

Calling after a long time

Generally, calling after a pause is more indicative of a strong hand than a weak one. Your opponent is either genuinely taking time to consider the strength of their cards or trying to deceive you.

Player Patterns

As this article has made clear, it’s important to observe your players over several hands to read them accurately. By creating profiles in your head for each of your opponents, you can determine their strategies and use this to your advantage.

A player that always plays could have an aggressive game plan in mind. Whereas, a player that plays less frequently could be pursuing a long-term passive game plan.

Or, you may notice that a player makes moves based on a pattern, for example, they check after every two losses. In this case, you can predict how players are going to move ahead of the cards being dealt.

Alternatively, if the player follows no pattern at all, they may be playing a tilt – i.e., they’re so frustrated with the game that they’re playing recklessly.

Taking note of such observations can help you better understand your opponents’ long-term strategies.

Generally, players play as they mean to go on. The characteristics that they show during the first couple of hands will most likely determine how they’ll play throughout the rest of the game.

But bear in mind: you must treat every poker player individually. Just because you notice a player moving in a similar way to a previous rival, doesn’t mean they’re following the same pattern.

There are over 60 million poker players in the US, and more than 150 million worldwide, each with their unique tactics and approaches. You must observe poker players on a case-by-case basis to determine their exact patterns and game plans.

Most Viewed Articles