Texas Hold'Em Poker Tips : Avoiding Tells

If you want to be successful when playing Texas Holdem, you need to learn about poker tells. Poker tells are visual and audible clues that players give off about their hands without knowing (or on purpose to bluff you). Tells may be obvious (such as a repeated pattern that a player has when he has a winning hand) or less obvious such as hand movements, eye contact, or breathing patterns. Opponents may begin talking a lot or giving a silent pause before raising (which are both signs of a strong hand). Heres some tips to keep YOUR tells from being known by your opponents:

Wear sunglasses and/or a hat or visor when playing. This avoids direct eye contact with your opponents. Lots of people say that the eyes do not lie, and experienced poker players have excellent methods to read your eyes to know when you are bluffing or if you have a strong hand or weak hand.

Standardize your betting and body movements. Be consistent in the manner that you put your chips in the pot whether you choose push your chips in while stacked, splash them in, or whatever betting the same way with every hand means that your opponents cannot read your hand based on your betting behavior.

Dont hold your breath. Keep your breathing and speech patterns normal and be conscious of them. Many players actually hold their breath without knowing it when they bluff, or put unusual voice inflection behind their words, both of which are dead giveaways for experienced players who know how to read them.

Be prepared for questions about your hand. Many professionals will ask you about your hand just to hear your voice and see your response, so that they can read your hand. Have a prefabricated response that you will say each time you are asked about your hand, counter with a question about their hand, or just ignore the question like it was never asked.