Everyone knows that body language can disclose personality traits and intentions. On observation, you can tell if some one is bent on causing you pleasure or pain. This comes in very handy in a poker game.
In poker, body language helps to read any “tells” on any of the other players. A tell is a more or less repeating sign which reveals a players current hand and intentions. Body language must be observed in relation to the rest of the relevant environment: specific gestures are repeated in specific situations, like chucking chips before a move meant to scare you into a check, and thus may reveal both the opponents hand (or at least narrow down the possibilities) and his/her pattern of thinking.
There is nothing magical about body language and how to read it. When you think that professional poker players rely heavily on their keen observation of their opponent’s body language, you can bet there is something in it for you too. As you improve your skills at both poker and reading other’s gestures, you will earn yourself more money. And of no less importance, you will become more aware of this facet of the game. As you become aware of opponent’s tells, you will become more observant of your own body behavior and be able to hide your gestures, If you can, strive to remove your revealing body language gestures altogether. You may do this by converting them into something else entirely, thereby causing utter confusion in your opponents who fancy themselves adept at observing the nuances of body language.
The potential of body language perception is not a trivial matter. Expert players avail themselves of the unorthodox. Of course, they perfect their technical skills, but they also scan the environment where a specific table is located. High degrees of body language reading are mostly intuition-based, even so, a strong grasp on it instantly raises a player to the zenith among players who do not have a firm grasp on logic, but win anyway. These players are able to read opponents’ cards and forecast moves by how they manipulate their shirt buttons or check their watches.
Though there is no visible body language online, online tells are a real, detectable thing. You can’t read a players icon, but you can read the speed with which they make specific decisions. Online games are games of buttons: you bet, call, raise by clicking the appropriate choice. Now, the time it takes you to decide is what your opponents notice. They may notice that your moves are automatic or that you are deliberating where there seems no room for doubt.
Such moves are typically uncharacteristic of the rest of the player’s game: they are not naturally slow thinkers; they are simply trying to convince you that they have a good hand, but taking a while to “think” and then pressing “check,” as if saving the good cards for a greater later bank. Actually, they hope their opponent will check as well, so that they don’t have to play a weak hand right away.
With practice you will be able to ascertain the difference between natural pauses and bluffs. Now that you have that down, you can go another step and learn the details of the pause-patterns of players you have targeted.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Absolute Poker and competes in the monthly Races and Rolls Rakeraces.
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