Poker Tips for Beginners: Hiding Your “Tells”

Experienced poker players will look for “tells” – unconscious body language that gives away the hand. Like a Mom, these players can instinctively tell when you’re bluffing: your gestures and verbal cues make it very obvious that you’re not telling the truth about your hand.

You have to hide your tells to become a better poker player. Relying on luck – or unskilled opponents – will only take you so far. These tips will help you figure out your tells and what to do about them.

Poker players have tells for both good and bad hands. It’s important to eliminate both types of tells. When you do this, other players will have a very hard time figuring out if you have good or bad cards. You can win more pots and be more intimidating if your poker buddies are rarely, if ever, able to determine what type of hand you’re holding.

One of the best ways to find your tells is by videotaping yourself in action. This is going to be difficult to do, considering that your opponents probably don’t want you to become a better player, but you can still pull this off. Videotape yourself playing online poker (your tells are very likely to show even though the other players can’t see you). Find a group of casual poker players who want to help each other improve. Ask your fellow players to watch you closely and offer feedback.

You might not know what to look for: that’s okay. These tips will help you figure out what you’re doing differently – and how to improve.

In particular, you should look at:

Eye movement. Pros often wear sunglasses to prevent other players from reading their eyes. This is one of the most obvious tells, so take note of where your eyes wander – and where they focus most of their attention. Many people will take several quick glances at good cards, but totally ignore their hands when they don’t have anything.

Facial expressions. These are difficult to camouflage or fake because these expressions are so deeply rooted in human nature. It’s also difficult to put on a convincing smile or satisfied look when you’re not holding a good hand. You’ll probably have to work hard on your facial expressions, but the rewards will be more than worth the time you spend.

Nervous tics. Poker is exciting: many players get adrenaline rushes when the stakes are high and the hands are hot. This is when your nervous tics are most likely to emerge. Do you rub or pull your ear when you’re nervous or lying? Do you drum your fingers on the table?

Betting patterns. Many new poker players fall into patterns when they bet. Soon everyone at the table knows that Poker Joe always raises the pot by ten bucks when he fails to fill in his inside straight – and they’ll call the bluff. Don’t let this happen to you: learn your betting patterns and change them up as necessary to keep the other people at the table from figuring you out.

Chip play. Some players stack and re-stack their chips when they’re nervous. Others try very hard not to look at their chips when they’re holding bad hands. Simple acting. The easiest bluff is the one that makes you act the opposite of how you should with your hand. Many amateur players will have a terrible hand, but loudly pronounce that they’re about to take the pot. Sometimes this is a great way to confuse opponents – but not if you use this bluff every time. It’ll take all of five minutes for the other players to figure out that your bluff is anything but complicated.

These are just a few of the tells that can give away your hand. Eliminating these problem areas will make you a much better poker player. You’ll be very difficult to read, which will force the other players to put a lot of thought into what you’re doing – or, in some cases, what you’re not doing.

Keep practicing and working on your tells. You’ll probably find others that aren’t mentioned here. Every time you improve even one small tell, you’re that much closer to becoming a champion poker player.