2 Common Mistakes

One of the most common poker tell mistakes that I see a lot would be setting a baseline. What I mean is that people see someone with shaky hands betting and immediately they believe that person is bluffing. They didn't notice that he was literally 75 years old and was shaking long before he even sit down. How can you gain a tell from that? That is just normal behavior for him. You have to set a baseline for every person sitting at the table before you can start to figure what poker tells they have. One of the first things you should do when you are just walking up to the table is to see how everyone is sitting and how they stack their chips. This will start to give you a heads up on what type of players you are up against. A sloppy stack tends to lean towards a loose player and a nice even stack leans toward a tight player. Now this may not always be the case, but this is a good place to start.

The second most common mistake is setting a standard for a poker tell. For example, when someone stares you down after a bet, you would assume that this person is holding a weak hand if you went by all the books. You can't do this. When you read and research poker tells, everything will tell you what a particular tell is and what the strength of their hand probably is. What they all don't say is that this is only a guideline to go along, not a set in stone tell. Each person has their own quirks and mannerisms. You have to figure what each is for that particular person. You may find that when a person exhibits certain tells that they are the exact opposite of what you have read or been told or mean nothing at all which is rather frustrating. Observation is key here and you should be on your toes when notice a tell. Put into perspective of what they are doing whether they are betting, just seeing a flop, or sitting out of the hand watching. As you acquire more time at the tables and your observation improves, you will begin to figure out your own standards of poker tells and really begin to reap some rewards.