Online Poker: The No-Tell Advantage

Unless you're a professional poker player -- and a fairly good one, at that - playing poker at an online casino substantially increases the odds that you'll eventually leave the game with a bigger bankroll than you bought in with. The reason is all in the telling. Poker "tells," that is. Sure, you know what a tell is, everyone knows what a tell is.

A tell is when a player's eyes open wide as an August full moon when a fourth ace lands in their hand. A tell is when a person grimaces upon failing to fill that inside straight they were irrationally drawing to. A tell is when a bluffer nervously picks up and keeps checking his hole cards every time he's running one. Everybody knows those tells and most of us have practiced not doing any of them. Which is, sad to say, irrelevant when you're faced off against a real poker player.

A pro can "read" opposing players the way a Native American deerstalker can read a trail, the way an all-star quarterback can read a defense, the way Gerry Spence or other world-class defense lawyers can read a witness. Why can the professional read you like a polygraph chart just by observing you through his deceptively disinterested-looking slitted eyes? Because he has to. Over time, good hands and bad hands average out - every player gets his share of each. To consistently win more than he loses - in other words, to make a living at poker - the professional not only has to beat the odds, he has to beat the odds by a sufficient margin to cover the cost of rakes or table charges and return a profit. Which takes a lot of expertise. Play 800 hands at a table with eight players and each one, according to the law of averages, will have the best hand 100 times. The best hand, but not necessarily the winning hand.

The professional faces three challenges: 1. Win as many pots as possible where he doesn't have the best hand going in; 2. Get out of losing hands before committing any substantial money to them; 3. Maximize the size of every pot he wins. As you can see, that's a tall order and filling it requires more than instant recall of odds and probabilities and a highly refined betting strategy - though both those things are essential. It also requires Sherlock Holmesian powers of observation and a deep understanding of human nature.

A true professional poker player integrates everything from the degree of moisture on an opponent's brow, to the way the opponent picks up a glass or cigarette, to the tightness of his mouth, to the tension in his fingers, into an often uncannily accurate vision of exactly what cards that opponent is holding and how that opponent intends to play them.

Playing online, all those tells - and a myriad more - are unavailable. In an online casino, the only way another player can try and read you is by observing your betting strategy and the speed with which you bet, call, raise or fold under various circumstances. And giving those kinds of tipoffs can be easily avoided with a little concentration. So next time you're on your way out the door to visit a card room, consider doing a 180, sitting down in front of your computer, and logging on to an online casino for a satisfying session of leveled playing field, "no-tell" poker.