Hand Reading And Timing Tells

Things you will learn:

• How to deduce the range of cards you opponent is holding
• How measuring the timing of your opponents decisions will give you key insights into how strong their hands are

Reading opponents' hands in poker is like reading a book backwards. Go ahead, grab a book and read the last chapter. Now try and figure out how the author got there. Usually it'll make sense. The same principle applies in poker. You need to work backwards through the streets, putting the 'story of the hand' in order.

Putting someone on a range of hands is not guesswork. It's about following the action and knowing your opponents' tendencies. Let's say you're playing in a $2/$4 short-handed cash game. The button raises to $14 and you re-raise from the big blind to $44 with Q♥-Q♦. Your opponent calls.

The flop comes down 8♦-5♦-2♥. You lead out for $90 and your opponent moves all-in for their entire stack. You have to call $266 to win $536. So you are getting roughly 2/1. You require around 33% or more equity to make this call profitable.

Let's assume that our opponent is a decent, strong opponent who didn't call pre-flop with utter trash and won't get too carried away with marginal hands. They aren't that tricky so we can probably rule out aces and kings as they would have re-re-raised pre-flop. So we can thus input the range of hands they have as jacks, 10s, eights, fives, deuces and also the big diamond draws: A♦-K♦, A♦-Q♦, A♦-J♦ and A♦-10♦.

Deciphering online tells can be tricky, but there are patterns you should look out for which are usually reliable. Putting immense faith in an unusual timing read you have picked up is not sensible, in fact it's downright dangerous. Also, observant players are generally more self-aware, meaning they mask their timing and manipulate the time it takes them to make an action in order to deceive you. Instead, try and use timing tells in combination with betting patterns to build a picture of the hand.

A quick check or a delay followed by a check usually indicate weakness. This is particularly true with straightforward players who were called on the flop after continuation betting and give up on the turn. Almost never do you see the insta-check with a huge hand on the turn here, most players are thinking about how to extract the maximum amount, their lack of speed gives away the fact that you shouldn't try to pinch this.

Conversely a delay followed by a bet often indicates strength. Your opponent is trying to make it look like they are not sure about their bet, but they are probably very strong. Another reliable tell is the overbet shove on the river. When made by a relatively tight player this is a sure sign of danger; and if combined with a long thinking time before the shove, it almost cements the hand in stone.

With looser, more aggressive opponents, big shoves on the river are trickier propositions requiring a lot more analysis. Loose-aggressive opponents often make big river bluffs at scare cards when the draw was obvious on the flop, or if their opponent's hand is relatively face-up. This tell is only really useful at medium stakes, with small stakes games rarely seeing this type of play.

While it's important that you can pick up on other players' online tells, it's crucial you don't give away your own. Always take the same amount of time in meaningful pots and try not act too quickly or too slowly. The best way to do this is to plan ahead. If you're drawing, think about how you will play when you hit your card. Will you check with a view to check-raising? If you bet, how much will you make it?