There is no hard and fast trick to unlocking a players tells. A good player, especially when online gambling, will vary things like time taken and amount bet, generally. But after a long slog even the best will start to unfold some key information you can take advantage of. Then there are the fish, which will just do it the whole time.

Online betting is not the same as playing poker live when it comes to tells. You can’t see the bead of sweat dripping down your opponent’s forehead on the big bluff or the hand shaking when they have the nuts. That is not the be all and end all of tells, that is just the glorified version of it. Even live the best way to unlock a tell is to observe, over time, the patterns that a player displays.

When online gambling there are basically two main things to keep track of, and only one of them is really solid. These are time patterns and betting patterns. Time patterns being how long it takes a player to call or raise (or fold if you are curious about whether they folded strong or weak). Online betting patterns, of course, being how much they bet when bluffing or when strong.

Time patterns are, unfortunately, vastly overrated. There is no hard and fast rule to it and you can never really differentiate between a disconnection, a player getting a phone call, or them sitting behind their screen straining at a decision, so unless you have no other information to go by, don’t utilise what you know. That is not to say don’t gather the knowledge, because you will need it. Analyse what your opponents do and how long they take to make big calls when strong or weak. Generally, online, a player bets quickly when they are strong and takes time to work out a bet when weak, the general difference being when they are making a value bet with the nuts.

Betting patterns are where it is at. With most online poker software you can either manually enter in your bet with the keyboard or drag a slider so there are easy ways for you to work out what they are doing with what hand. The best information you can get is learning what they do in what position preflop with what hand. Once the flop comes down betting patterns go out the window because they will be making decisions not only based on the flop but also on what they think that you have.

Over time you will get a knowledge base, as long as you pay attention and write notes, on what each of your opponents does preflop with their hands. This gives you a huge insight into what they are holding come the river and you are holding two pair with a potential straight on the board and can be the difference between winning and losing.

Keep in mind that a good player will always adjust their online betting, even preflop, so don’t be surprised if you get a rude shock when they are actually holding weak when you put them on strong and it costs you a pot when they turn over 5 6 and have a straight. In the long run though, you will be right, so don’t be discouraged when this happens. As with anything to do with poker, it’s all about patterns in the long term.

This was a guest post crafted by the budding gambler writer at onlinegambling.com.au