An obvious tell (subconscious action) can be the amount of force a player uses in placing their chips in the pot. If the player spikes their chips (slamming down a stack past the bet line), they are more likely to have a weak hand.

Also, be aware that fumbling of the chips may betray inexperience at a brick and mortar casino, and belie the fact that the player has considerable experience online. This is very apparent with some players on televised poker tournaments that draw their players from online qualifiers, such as Fox Sports Net tournaments sponsored by major online poker sites.

When a player makes a call or raise and they place their chips closer to themselves, they often have a strong hand. They are often subconsciously keeping their chips within easy reach to rake them back when they win. A player who uses a lot of force in tossing in the chips toward the pot, or flings them away, often has a marginal hand, because this tossing away of the chips can be because they feel they have already lost the hand and the chips as well.

Players with several denominations of chips in front of them can often give away their hand by which chips they use when betting. If they place their smaller denomination chips in the pot, subconsciously giving away their small chips and keeping their big chips for themselves, they are unsure they have the best hand. If they bet with the high denomination chips, they are not expecting to lose them. A player making a move for their chips out of turn is normally indicating that the most recent community card is an improvement.

How players maintain their chip stacks may give an insight into their style of play. Loose-aggressive players often have sloppy, irregular chip stacks. Neat, organized chip stacks are often the earmark of a tight-aggressive player. How a player cuts out the chips can also give insight into the strength of the hand. Cutting out chips is when a player separates the chips from the stack before placing them in the pot to see how many chips will remain after the bet. It is similar to the way a cowboy would cut out a calf from the herd for branding.

This is the key place to look for chip tells. A player who is unsure of the amount of chips needed for a call, or who is having trouble counting out the correct number of chips, is often unsure of the strength of his/her hand. A player counting and recounting chips may also be unsure of his/her hand’s strength. Unfortunately, playing with chip stacks are where most players go Hollywood (Acting at the table, normally with a reverse tell.), so realize that the player may be using a reverse tell to fool you and the other players.

Card Tells

When a player looks at their hole cards can be a tell on their experience level. Instead of watching the other players look at their cards, many inexperienced players look at their own cards as soon as they receive them By not waiting until it is their turn to play they miss viewing possible tells other players may exhibit.

While the dealer places the community cards on the table, you should watch how other players still in the hand react. Their eyes may look to their chips, a look of pleasure may pass fleetingly over their face, or a look of disgust may show they did not hit the card they needed.

If the flop falls with several cards of the same suit, watch for the player who rechecks their hole cards. They may remember the rank of the cards, but be unsure of the suits, and be checking to see if they are on a flush draw. The same tell is possible if the flop cards are connected, since they are verifying their straight draw. Be wary of any strong bets after these tells.

Betting Tells

How quickly a player bets is often indicative of the hand they have. A fast call or raise normally signifies strength, while taking too much time can be a sign of indecision. Make sure you observe the player’s actions for a while to determine the normal speed they play their hands. Be prepared for the false tell, though, as this is an excellent place for an opponent to think long and act weak while holding a premium starting hand.

If you notice that a player always raises with large pocket pairs, you can avoid a confrontation when you hold a marginal hand. If you notice a player continues to bet after a pre-flop raise, then you can safely check to them when you have a big hand, knowing you can get a check raise out of them.

It is important to follow the betting patterns of your opponents through each street. Follow all hands to the river to see what they have bet and how strong their hand actually was. This information becomes invaluable the longer you play with a particular opponent, as you will be able to correlate their betting with their hole cards.

About the author: Daniel L. Cox is the editor of Poker Insider Magazine, an e-zine dedicated to poker. He is also the award-winning author of “Winning Blue-Collar Hold’em: How to Play Low-limit Ring Games and Small Buy-in Tournaments” and four upcoming books on poker. He can be found on Twitter at PokerInsiderMag, where he gives you a daily poker quote.

Losing your temper while playing poker, playing tilt, losing your stance during the game and steaming! This spells out only one result and that’s bad poker!

If your emotions get in the way of logical thinking then you are steaming. Making the right decision depends on your level of mental stability. If you are angry, frustrated and pissed off then go home, you are not in the right state of being to play poker. A discipline poker player controls himself, calm exudes him and he is cool and stable. Check out this example of a player on tilt play.

His supposed to be bride didn’t attend their wedding, he bumped his car on the driveway because his depressed, he got suspended from his job because he disrespected his employer. A person in this situation cannot make better judgment because he is at his wit’s end.

All poker players are vulnerable to steaming. Our problems even on our personal lives really affects our decision making process. So its really best to avoid playing poker when you are depressed.

Steaming won’t stop unless the problems will be solved. You will be in a roll if you are steaming, it seems like that it will get bigger and worst. And that day won’t be yours. Check out a common example of tilting:

It begins with a bad beat and your steaming because you had the superior hand but the winner with a supreme kind of luck won. You’re still thinking about it on the next hand. And then your with a very poor hand this time. And then you try to bet big with a poor hand hoping to get the luck of the guy who win the first hand. And you end up losing! The guy got the pot again for the second row and you’re angry with him and yourself for playing a poor hand to the hilt.

And it did not end there. Your luck was back again and you thought that its only a game, however after a few hours you experience another bad beat. And then you beginning to recall the first dead beat, the poor hand you played, the present beat you had, you’re husband leaving your door and then thinking what to do when you got to the office because you have not finished your job on the deadline.. and so on…

And then after more hands you see yourself playing with your whole savings, betting with a large bet 10 times bigger with your normal bet and having a bad hand.

A poker player needs a reliable game strategy in order to become a good player. Still using the same strategy on all your opponents and on each game you encounter is not a good move. You need to change your plans in order to become a better poker player.

Conforming your strategies with your rivals is the basis for your success as well you need to analyze each situation or game in advance. If you’re willing to adjust your core strategy will make you discover your strengths and use it to take advantage of your opponents weaknesses.

Every opponent you encounter is different. Some play hands even if they have a feeble card, some make bluffs and some are serious players. You just need to adjust the way you played the game in accordance with your opponents way of thinking and the present situation.

Here are some things that you should do so that you can tailor your basic plans in accordance to the other players.

Take note of the other players’ actions. Observe the actions of all your opponents. Keep it all in mind, you’ll never know it can be useful into your future encounters.

Know their reasons. In every game, the person your playing with has their own motives, sometimes even foolish reasons. The point is that you need to know those reason whatever it is. If you know how to figure out their reason for playing, you will be able to use this information for future games.

Identify the other players’ state of mind. Of course every player think in different ways. Your job is to have a basic understanding on what’s going on inside their head. Place your self into their shoes. Think of the things that you’ll do wouldn’t do if you are in their place. Thinking like this will make you win the next round of poker and even with chess.

Always pay attention to your opponents. Those tasks mentioned are not easy. Only few will give some initiative in doing those things. But taking these steps will eventually pay off in the end.