How to Win a Poker Game Without Having the Best Cards

Any good poker player knows that winning a hand doesn’t necessarily mean having the best cards in your hand. A lot of it is knowing how to bet and when to bet and how to bluff your opponent into believing you have the better hand – even when you don’t! But what IS a “tell” and how can you learn your opponent’s hand without giving away your own?

First, a “tell” is simply a natural reaction to having a good set of cards in your hand. It may be a smile or a twitch of an eyebrow, a glance to one side or nervous shuffling of the poker chips. No matter how reserved you may think you are the odds are that you’re giving off certain signals that other players can pick up on and guess what’s in your hand. The trick is to find out what your own “tell” is and manipulate it to your own benefit while finding out those of your opponents and using it against them. This skill takes a lot of time and work, but can help you win game after game without having the best hand.

One way to test yourself is to deal yourself hand after hand in front of a mirror and watch yourself as you react to the cards. It may seem silly, but you’ll find yourself giving off certain signals without knowing it. Playing with your chips, chewing on a straw or even rubbing your forehead can be your way of communicating that you have a good hand or a bad hand. Watching yourself in a mirror can help you restrain yourself from giving away these signals and develop your own technique. A good poker player can even turn these signals around and use them against the other players, giving away a “tell” that would usually signify a bad hand when the opposite might be true – tricking the other players into betting high with the impression that you have a bad hand.

But how do you learn the “tells” of the other players at your table? Fortunately or unfortunately, this only comes with practice and playing hand after hand and watching his or her reaction to each and every play. You may have noticed that some professional poker players wear sunglasses no matter what time of day or where the game is being held; this is to allow them to study the other players without being noticed. Eventually you will be able to tell the content of your opponents’ hands almost without fail.

One of the best and worst aspects of online poker is the loss of personal touch – you don’t see the faces of the other players in an online game. Many online players move into regular poker games based on this experience and suffer due to the lack of personal interaction; giving away their “tells” easily and not picking up on the other players who may be telegraphing their cards with every twitch and sniffle. Others have become quite successful in the professional poker playing world because of their ability to remain detached and to treat the other players as just another aspect of a computer program and approach it with the cool logic of a master programmer.

A good poker player can tell you exactly what’s in each opponent’s hand long before the cards are actually shown. With a little personal study and practice you’ll be able to bid with confidence and bluff with ice-cold certainty, knowing that you’re in charge of the game and ready to scoop up that fat pot with your skill and knowledge of “tells”!