Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

“Online Poker Tells”

Research from

Victor Chandler Poker

http://www.vcpoker.com

July 2004

Contact:

Simon Prodger, Product Marketing Manager

[e-mail]

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

Introduction

A lot has been written about poker tells – the subconscious clues that indicate to other

players, the strength or weakness of a player’s hand.

But do poker tells exist online?

In an earlier issue of our monthly newsletter, Big Slick, we explored some ideas on

online poker tells. The article generated some debate among our readers so we decided

to conduct a formal survey and see what they really thought. The research was

conducted by email and online survey during June 2004.

To give perspective, we asked respondents about both offline and online poker tells.

Results

Question 1: How often do you play ONLINE poker?

Respondents were frequent online poker players with 72% playing between 4-7 times

per week.

95% of respondents played online poker at least once per week.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

4 - 7 times a w eek 1 - 3 times a w eek

At least once a

fortnight

At least once a

month

Less frequently

than this.

How often do you play ONLINE poker?

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

Question 2: How often do you play OFFLINE poker?

Offline poker playing, for example in a casino card room or a home game with friends,

was not as popular with respondents.

22% of respondents never played offline poker. 48% of respondents played offline poker

at least once a month.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Never

4 - 7 times

a week

1 - 3 times

a week

At least

once a

fortnight

At least

once a

month

Less

frequently

than this.

How often do you play OFFLINE poker?

Question 3: Which of the following statements best matches your opinion about
poker tells OFFLINE?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

I actively look for tells in every player I

meet.

If someone does something strange I'll

notice

I just concentrate on my own game

Which of the following statements best matches

your opinion about poker tells OFFLINE?

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

Looking for tells played a significant part in most players’ strategy with 58% saying that

they actively looked for tells in other players when involved in an offline game. A further

28% said they would notice and react if someone did something strange. 14% said they

just concentrated on their own game.

Question 4: What do you think are the three most common tells in offline poker

Players were asked to report their top 3 from 6 recognized poker tells:

• The eyes – the length of time a player stares at his cards, his willingness to look

you in the eye, his eye pupil dilation

• Facial expression – does a player show a noticeable tic, or obvious unhappiness

when a hand is weak, obvious confidence when a hand is strong?

• Weak is strong, strong is weak – with a strong hand a player tries to look

disinterested, with a weak hand a player tries to appear intimidating

• Anxiety – physical clues such as flexing of muscles, changes in voice, chest

expanding

• Trembling hands – showing nervousness by hands shaking, usually indicating a

strong hand.

• Glancing or playing with chips – Indicating a player is already planning his

attack.

The most common of these were ‘weak is strong’, ‘the eyes’ and ‘glancing or playing

with chips’.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Weak is strong

The eyes

Glancing or playing with chips

Facial expression

Anxiety

Trembling hands

What do you think are the three most common

tells in offline poker?

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

Question 5: Thinking about your own poker game offline, what tells do you

worry about showing to other players?

Players were asked about what clues they were worried about giving out. Facial

expression and ‘the eyes’, were the top 2 worries.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Facial expression

The eyes

Weak is strong

Anxiety

Glancing or playing with chips

Trembling hands

What tells do you worry about showing to

other players?

Question 6: Which of the following statements best matches your opinion

about poker tells online?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

If someone does something strange

I'll notice

I actively look for tells in every player I

meet.

I just concentrate on my own game

Which of the following statements best matches your

opinion about poker tells online?

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

In online poker, fewer players actively looked for tells – only 31% against 58% in offline

poker. Indeed, 25% just concentrated on their own game against 14% offline.

Question 7: What do you think are the three most common tells in online

poker?

Players were asked to report their top 3 from 5 suggested online poker tells:

• Automatic play – a lazy approach to the auto buttons lets a player slip into a set

pattern of play – a break in that pattern is a clear tell

• Slowness to respond – a pause followed by a check can often indicate weakness,

a delay followed by a raise often indicates a strong hand

• Quickness to respond – a very fast check can often indicate a weak hand, quick

bets on the turn or the river can often indicate a strong hand.

• Chat panel - talk gives clues, silent types often play hard, holding good hands

when they raise; chatty, friendly players tend to be looser.

• Player's names - screen names like 'The Gambler' and 'Mad Dog' tend to be loose

and aggressive while players with names such as 'The Rock' tend to be tighter

players.

The most common were ‘quickness to respond’, ‘slowness to respond’ and ‘automatic

play’.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Quickness to respond

Slowness to respond

Automatic play

Chat panel

Player's names

What do you think are the three most common tells in online

poker?

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

Question 8: Thinking about your own poker playing online, what tells do you

worry about showing to other players?

Players were asked about what clues they were worried about giving out. ‘Quickness

to respond’ and ‘automatic play’ were the top 2 worries.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Quickness to respond

Automatic play

Slowness to respond

Chat panel

Your screen name

What tells do you worry about showing to other players?

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Online Poker Tells Survey, July 2004

Our Conclusions

• Online poker tells do exist. The most recognized are related to the speed of play

– ‘quickness to respond’ – 76%, ‘slowness to respond’ – 73%, and falling into the

trap of ‘automatic play’ – 68% scored highly in our research.

“Beware, some players are slow to respond when they get a monster hand

as they are indecisive how to play it and get the maximum amount from

it - don't mistake this delay for having a weak hand. Also, watch each

players’ reaction times whether they have good cards or not and note

any difference from their norm.”

• Online tells such as the chat panel and players’ screen names did not score

highly, 29% and 8% respectively. However, one player did report:

“I was once playing at a table and one of the other players wrote his hand

in the chat screen by accident!” Another that, “anyone called

Imgonnabluff will probably never bluff and play only very strong hands!”

• One respondent summed up the whole approach to poker psychology,

“The good players vary their responses and leave you guessing as to what

they really have - online or offline.”

• Betting patterns also hold clues,

“I think the only real tells on online poker relate to the size and frequency

of bets.”

• Collecting information was also important,

“For me the secret is keeping book on every one I play against. Even if its

only a few hands, for me its still important to get an idea of how they

play”

“The beauty of online play is that you can accumulate all of this

information and refer back to it time and again. You simply cannot do

this in bricks and mortar poker. Information and form is the secret I

think.

• And finally, one player had a few sobering words to add,

“not really a tell, but I win most on Friday & Saturday nights, after closing time -

people are more reckless drunk, obviously.”

You can read more about poker tells at

http://www.pokertop10.com/poker_tells.html

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