Strong Online Poker Hands

Playing poker can be considered something that needs not only to be learned through playing the cards but also with the body language of the other players. Reading the body language of other players is clearly difficult when you are playing poker online.

There are such things as "tells" that can be seen even when playing poker online. Tells are the means in which other players can betray their hands or decisions. Believe it or not, more action can be present in an online game of poker than what would occur when you play "real life" poker. Why is this? It is because there is more money involved in the betting.

What are some of the most common tells that you can look for when playing poker online? Here they are:

The stall is the common response that the most inexperienced online poker players seek to do when they have a powerful hand. Why is this? It is because they seek to feign ignorance regarding what to do in order to make their opponents call a raise. For those players that are experienced, they will take advantage of this to fake the appearance of a strong hand. As a result, young players would opt to stall when they have a solid hand while the quality expert players would stall to make a fake.

What about the concept of the rant vs. a gloat? There are those players that take advantage of chat boxes to give the impression that they are losing out on a beat. Yes, a number of players have a tendency to break down under the pressure of the chat and this opens the door to bully these players a little more in order to lead them to lose their games. Gloaters have a different approach as they are immature players that want to give the impression that they are stronger and more experienced. Bluff these players and see how far they are able to go and do this if you have a very good hand.

The all-knowing player is a player who keeps on giving out unsolicited advice on the proper way to play. Do not worry about such players because they eventually fade into the background and disappear.

There are other tells that you can continue to discover as you continue to play online. The best thing to do here would to be avoid placing too much attention on yourself. From this you can dedicate the needed time to discover the tells.

When you play online, you must navigate the inability to see your opponents clearly although it will be possible to see what they are able to do. It will be no different than playing poker with friends as people will reveal their personalities regardless of whether or not you end up seeing them face to face.

Here are some common behaviors that as a player you should always avoid:

1. Constant chatting. Whether you are engaging in rants or "merely" gloating, other players might be able to see right through you and this will definitely undermine whatever strategy you may have.

2. Over-reacting is a killer. Do not be so undisciplined that you end up telling all the players that you have a good or bad hand through clearly displaying tell-all emoticons on the screen. This is a super no-no.

3. Rechecking your cards when a flush draw is flopped may prove self-defeating. Instead, write down your cards if your memory is poor. Recheck your cards periodically but do it in a manner that will not undermine the game.

4. To tell your opponents that you are holding a strong hand is probably not a wise idea since they will know that you probably hold the weakest hand imaginable. Please refrain from this type of bluff.

For yourself, it is possible to avoid giving away your own personal tells and do so by not reacting in any manner that is perceivable to other opponents present at the online table.