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How To See Opponents Cards In Online Poker

Robert Woolley

Optimal video poker strategy is to hold the king and queen only. Holding the same cards as the computer opponents always results in the same expected value as conventional video poker. In this case holding the three high cards has an expected value of 4.560592 credits (2.280296 credits for both the video poker and opponent bet). When your opponent takes a certain line (meaning the string of decisions they make preflop, and how they navigate the streets from the flop to the river) that doesn’t make strategic sense, see how often they make these unusual plays in the game, and if you can, what cards.

Does he have it?

One of the frequent puzzles you have to solve when playing no-limit hold’em is the situation in which you have either top pair on the flop or an overpair to the board, but by the end of the hand you have to figure out whether your opponent made a flush.

Money

If I could do this correctly every single time, I’d be rich. I’m not rich, so you can be sure I don’t have a 100% accurate formula worked out. But there’s a tell involved in this situation that arises frequently enough that it’s well worth knowing about.

A couple of years ago, I was playing my usual game, $1/$2 no-limit hold’em, at what was then the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas, now renamed The Quad. Early in the session, I was in the small blind with -offsuit, and after one player made a small raise and another called, I decided to call as well. (If you want to question the wisdom of that call, I won’t fault you, though it worked out well this time.) The flop was a delightful , with two hearts.

I decided to fast-play this situation, and made a lead-out bet. The original raiser folded, then the other player called. His most likely hands were a , an , or a flush draw.

The turn was a third heart. Before I acted, I noticed that he rechecked his hole cards. A-ha! That strongly suggested that he did not have a flush draw that had just come in.

Why do I say this? Here’s why.

Most recreational players don’t memorize the suits of their cards. They retain a visual memory that they have either two red cards, two black cards, or one red and one black, but they don’t know the suits with any confidence.

If he’d had two red cards, he would have rechecked them on the flop to see if he had a flush draw before deciding whether to call. But he didn’t. He only rechecked them on the turn, suggesting that he had one red card and one black card. He was checking to see if he now had a backdoor flush draw that he might make on the river.

After he called my flop bet, I was planning to check if a heart came on fourth street, thinking that the draw was his most likely hand, but when I saw him check his cards again when the third heart came, that changed my mind. I bet and he folded.

I think he probably had a black king and a smaller red card. Most likely, he discovered that his red card was a diamond, or it was a heart but too small for him to have confidence that his flush would be the winner even if the river brought a fourth heart.

The key to this tell is understanding that players want to know if they have a flush draw — it makes a big difference in deciding whether to call. Having done so, they no longer need to recheck their hole cards once they actually make the flush. For the many players who exhibit this particular tell, then, the trick is to know that the “suit check” is intended to determine whether they have a flush draw, not whether they have a made flush.

If a player’s hole cards are the same color (red or black), he’ll tend to recheck them when the board has two cards of the same suit in that color. If his cards are of different colors, however, he’ll usually check them only when the board has three of a suit in that color on the flop or turn.

This tell is common enough to be highly profitable and worth watching for, but is no more universal than anything else in poker. Some caveats:

  • Some players always memorize the suits of their down cards, and never need to recheck them later in the hand. (I recommend this practice to you.)
  • Some players do memorize their suits, but when their flush comes in they want to reassure themselves that they didn’t misread their cards, so will recheck before committing a lot more money to the pot.
  • Some players are aware of the tell I’ve described and are smart enough to use it deceptively against you. Such players will check their hole cards when a third suited card hits the board in order to make you think they only now have a draw, when their flush is actually made. Or they will check their cards when the flop has two of a suit in order to make you think they have the flush draw, so that they can bluff when the third suited card comes. But this species of player is relatively rare in low-stakes games.

Remember that a player rechecking his cards is most often looking for a flush draw rather than a completed flush, and you’ll be well on your way to knowing how to play your big pair against him.

Robert Woolley lives in Asheville, NC. He spent several years in Las Vegas and chronicled his life in poker on the “Poker Grump” blog.

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By now, most online poker players know about the benefits of using a head-up display (HUD) like Poker Copilot to get a read on your opponents.

The information that a HUD displays for each of the players sitting at the table with you is invaluable when you’re deciding how to approach a particular hand. Knowing exactly how loose, tight, passive, or aggressive your opponent is can be an enormous benefit for a serious online player.

However, maximizing your profitability at the tables isn’t just about getting the most out of one particular tactic or mechanism. Being a successful player is about building the biggest “edge” possible in any given scenario. Doing this effectively involves combining whatever informational advantages you have at your disposal, interpreting them holistically, and then making a decision.

In traditional poker, there are dozens of physical signals, referred to as “tells,” that players can inadvertently reveal to their opponents. From monitoring the way chips are handled to listening for changes in the tone of voice, live poker players are always on the lookout for subtle signs that betray their opponents’ confidence in their cards.

However, since these signals aren’t visible in online poker, many players completely disregard the concept of monitoring an opponent’s behavior, opting to limit their reads to HUD statistics.

In the interest of maximizing every edge at our disposal, this post takes a look at four “tells” that online players are occasionally guilty of, and discusses how they can be interpreted to our advantage.

Tell 1: The Small Bet

How To See Opponents Cards In Online Poker Deuces Wild

This is probably the easiest tell to understand and one that almost every new player is guilty of making at some point.

When you’re worried about losing money, you want to limit the amount you’re risking. And if you’re certain you’re going to win, you want to maximize your winnings.

That’s solid logic. Except that most savvy players will pick up on this tendency pretty quickly and exploit it.

How To See Opponents Cards In Online Poker

This is an online tell that you need to back up with evidence before acting on it, though. Don’t assume that a player’s $1.25 bet into a $6.50 pot means they are holding a mid pair until you see the hand play out that way. As soon as you see a bet that’s less than the standard 3/4 or 2/3 of the pot, pay attention to the hand to find proof of a valid tell.

If you can confirm that a particular opponent bets low when they have little confidence in their hand, make a note of this immediately. This is one of the most powerful pieces of information you can have on someone’s playing style. Make it count.

What else do you know about a player who bets this way? It’s a safe assumption that they are new to the game and will in all likelihood have several other weaknesses in their gameplay. Play a standard tight, aggressive (TAG) game against them. Bet for value, don’t get fancy with bluffs and relax if they inflict a bad beat on you. You will eventually win all their money.

Tell 2: The Wait Shove

We’ve all seen this situation. There’s been some pre-flop action and it’s clear that all three players in the hand have decent hole cards. The flop comes KcJcTc. Under the gun bets. Mid position raises. Dealer waits. And waits some more. He’s taking his time to decide.

His timer runs out and his time-bank is activated. Clearly he’s agonizing over this decision. Does he want to risk a call with all the aggression already shown? Is he going to fold his top pair? Time is running out. And then, just before he’s forced into folding, he goes all-in.

Surely if he were holding the nut flush, he wouldn’t have had to agonize over the decision for a full minute? This must be a bluff.

At least, that’s what he wants you to think.

An extremely long wait before a shove is very often a sign that your opponent is holding an absolute monster. Call at your peril. The long wait is meant to give the impression that this is an extremely difficult decision and the villain is using every second at his disposal to weigh up every possible factor.

Yeah, they’re lying. They have you beat, and it’s time to fold your set.

Tell 3: The Check and Instant Raise

Poker

Picture this scenario. You’re relatively new to online poker and a new strategy has just occurred to you. Instead of betting when you have a strong hand, do what your opponent isn’t expecting and check. This will make them think you have nothing. Then, when they inevitably take advantage of your perceived weakness, you pounce on them with a raise! They’ll be so confused!

After pondering this approach for hundreds of hands, you’re finally in a spot to use your new strategy. The turn brings your straight and you’re relatively confident your opponent has a weaker hand. You’re first to act, and you check, hoping that your move will pay off. Your opponent waits a few seconds and, sure enough, makes a nice juicy 3/4 pot bet. It worked!

You can hardly contain your excitement and instantly click on the raise button, doubling their bet. How are they going to respond to this advanced strategy you just schooled them on?

How To See Hole Cards In Online Poker

Well, if they’re smart, they’ll have interpreted your hasty raise as a sign of strength and folded.

See

Many novice players are so thrilled when their check has induced a bet that they cannot wait to click on that raise button. This is a tell that you should interpret as a sign of strength. Consider folding your made hand, or call the minimum raise if you’re drawing.

The latter option is especially feasible because a minimum raise will often give you good pot odds to make the call. Read our post on playing a drawing hand if that is the spot you find yourself in.

Tell 4: The Instant Call

When a player is faced with a decision to call, raise, or fold, they have often had sufficient time to consider the scenario they are in. It’s seldom that a player will only start thinking about what they are going to do once the action is on them.

When your opponent calls a bet instantly, it’s often an indication that they have already considered what they would do if you were to bet, and decided that a call was their best option.

What does it mean if a player knows that the best play is a call? It means that: a) Their hand is too strong to fold, and b) Their hand is too weak to raise with.

When seeing an opponent instantly call a bet, it is a relatively safe assumption that they are holding a medium strength hand, or they are on a draw with many outs. Read our previous blog post on playing a drawing hand for more information on defining your number of outs and how that should factor into your decision to call.

One of the most important things to bear in mind here is the texture of the board. An instant call when the flop comes JsQsTs will very often mean that your opponent is on either a straight, flush, or combo draw. If this possibility is in line with the hand range you have put them on, it’s extremely important that your bet size does not give them the correct odds to make the call.

How To See Opponents Cards In Online Poker Vegas World

When a player is drawing, you always want to make them pay a premium to see the next card. Never make the decision to call an easy one.

Bonus: Other Minor Tells

Stack Sizes

In a cash game, regulars will rebuy chips so that they always have the maximum stack size possible. If a player never falls below the number of chips they can have at the table, it’s safe to assume they are a good player who you should treat with respect. Conversely, a weak player will often only rebuy when they run out of chips.

Odd Bet Sizes

Novice players will sometimes bet an amount like $3.41 rather than a rounded number like $3.50 to make their bet amount seem larger than it is. This can often be interpreted as a sign of weakness, if not an outright bluff.

VIP Status

Many poker sites will “brand” players with a visible indicator of the level they have reached on whatever loyalty program the site offers. If an opponent has achieved a relatively high status on this loyalty ladder, it’s safe to assume that they are a regular who takes the game seriously.

Multi-tabling

Very few fish play more than one table at a time. If you see the same player on several of your active tables, you can safely assume that they are a decent player.

Conclusion

While the obvious application of this knowledge is to exploit the weaknesses of your opponents and to avoid getting into a tight spot with a good player, it is also worth remembering that you can use it to confuse your opponents.

Many players will be aware of these tells and if you are playing at a poker site like Pokerstars, where there is a very high number of excellent players (even at the micro-stakes) it’s always an option to “advertise” one of these tells falsely to induce a specific play.

How To See Opponents Cards In Online Poker Game

Another thing to remember is that in both online and offline play, it’s seldom a great idea to risk your stack on a tell. Think of them as simply another tool in your belt when analyzing the spot you’re in. Combine tells with any other reads you may have, your assessment of table dynamics and, most importantly, the hand ranges you’ve put your opponents on.

How To See Opponents Cards In Online Poker Tournaments

See you at the tables!