Online Poker Tells
Online poker tells with the advice from WSOP Academy Instructor Mark Kroon
Since I was writting about Live Poker Tells in my previous post (You can check it out here: 10 Live Poker Tells by Mike Caro), it is time to say something about Online Poker Tells as well! To begin with, there are some fundamental differences between live poker and online poker, which further on implies the differences in getting and reading other player’s poker tells as well.
The most obvious difference between live poker and online poker regarding the tells is perhaps the fact, that online poker is not physically being played in the same room or place. Since you are not able to see other players faces and reactions, gaining additional information about your opponents based on various live poker tells (that I was talking about in my previous post) is therefore not possible.
Despite this »problem«, you can still read other player’s strengths and weaknesses by figuring out their online poker tells. The principle of online poker tells is pretty much the same as in live poker tells: In order to get information about how other players play poker, you have to pay attention to what they do and how they do it.
But instead focusing on physical signs that can help you figure out whether you are dealing with a very strong hand, you focus on other things, for instance:
- How fast or slow does your opponent acts with strong hands, weak hands, draws, missed draws,…?
- How much does a certain player bets with strong hands, weak hands, bluffs,…?
- Is your opponent using auto check/folding button, when he misses the flop?
Just as in live poker, every online poker player is different somehow, which means that his / her tells are different as well. Be careful when making up and following general or commonly know online poker tells, such as »checking and calling in a fast manner means that our online poker opponent is on a flush draw«.
Follow the general online poker tells only when you are sure that they really hold true for a certain poker player. You do this the best by playing a couple of thousands of hands with him and observing his actions and reactions.
Only then are you able to exploit that tell and benefit from it. Until then, focus all your attention to what your opponents do. Observe them constantly and you will get all the information you need!
To conclude this blog on online poker tells, take a look at the following video, where one of the WSOP Academy instructors, Mark “pokerH0″ Kroon, tells you about one possible online poker tell.
WSOP Academy Instructor Mark Kroon gives advice on online poker tells
Good luck at the poker tables and most of all: have fun! : )
Basic types of poker players in NL Texas Holdem
Today I write about the most basic or generic types of poker players that exist out there, especially in the arena of No-limit Texas Holdem Poker games. This information will help you recognize what type of poker player describes you and your opponents the best, when playing either live or online poker games.
As I am sure you already know, NL Texas Holdem is a very interesting card game with a wide variety of different players performing all kinds of different moves. To give you an example:
Some of the poker players tend to check/call all the way to the showdown, some like to check/raise every second pot they are involved in, some want to see the flop with A10 suited no matter how much you bet them pre-flop, and some of them will even call you allin pre-flop with 78 suited.
Therefore, we can say that every poker player has its own unique style of how he play poker. But despite this uniqueness, we are still able to make general conclusions about a certain player’s game in the following terms:
- How passive / agressive certain poker player is,
- How tight / loose certain poker player is.
Are you passive or agressive poker player?
You can find out if you are passive or agressive poker player, if you think about checking, calling, betting, raising and reraising.
For instance, if you tend to just check and call most of the times, then you are more passive poker player. On the other hand, if you tend to bet, raise and reraise most of the times, then you are agressive poker player.
Are you tight or loose poker player?
To find out whether you are tight or loose poker player, think about the number of hands you play in lets say 100 hands.
If you play only premium hands, like AA, KK, QQ, JJ and AK, and fold every thing else, then you are a tight poker player. On the other hand, if you play 80 hands out of 100, then you are a very loose poker player.
You should also know that the tight / loose dimension depends on the type of the Texas Holdem game being played. For instance, playing 20 hands out of 100 in Full Ring NL Holdem game can be marked as loose, whereas playing 20 hands out of 100 is not loose in Short Handed NL Holdem poker.
The most basic types of poker players
Based on the information above, we can now determine the most basic or generic types of poker players:
- tight and agressive poker players,
- tight and passive poker players,
- loose and agressive poker players and
- loose and passive poker players.
Of course, every one of the poker types described above has its strenghts and weaknesses (some even more than others), but since the purpose of this blog post is to introduce to you the most basic poker types of poker players, I will describe that in my next blog posts. Make sure to stay in touch with me, so you will not miss out on it.
Now that you know about the basic types of poker players, what can you say about yourself from this point of view? What kind of player are you? Are you more agressive than passive? Are you tight or loose?
Tell me about it in the comments below and good luck at the poker tables!
-
Stay in touch!
