Tell
A tell is something in the way a player acts, rather than in the cards, that gives away information about the hand they hold.
Live tells are real and much less reliable than stories about them suggest. Betting patterns and timing are far more consistent evidence than physical mannerisms, and acting on a single unusual gesture is how good reads become expensive ones.
Online the same idea survives as timing and sizing. How long a decision took, and whether the size matched what this player usually chooses, is often the only behavioural information available and is the more trustworthy kind anyway.
an example
your cards
An opponent takes eight seconds and then bets small on the river, where they have bet large every other time. That inconsistency is worth more than any glance across the table, and it is still only one piece of evidence.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find tell in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
Table image
Your table image is how the other players believe you play, which decides how they respond to your bets regardless of ho ...
HUD
A HUD is a display that overlays statistics about each opponent onto the table, drawn from the hands you have already pl ...
Bluff catcher
A bluff catcher is a hand that beats everything your opponent could be bluffing with and loses to everything they would ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
Forty hands against a bot, no account, and your own hand history at the end.