Most players would agree that getting tells on other players while playing poker online is a lot harder than getting tells on a player while playing live. Once you know what sort of tells are available to you then it becomes easier to notice them. One of the easiest tells there are is the “Timing Tell”. When you are involved in a hand big or small or even if your not in the hand, you should always pay attention to the amount of time the player is taking because usually it gives a clue to how strong of a hand they have.
Some example that are available go like this. You are playing in a $.50/$1 NL Texas Hold-em’ cash game and you are located in the cut-off position which is the player directly to the right of the dealer button. You are dealt A(d) 9(d) and decide to raise it up to $3.50 and the small blind just calls and calls quickly. The flop comes out 9(h)-2(s)-7(c) and your opponent again acts quickly and just checks. The decision is up to you and you have hit top pair on the board with top kicker a very good hand going heads up let alone going heads up with the big blind so you decide to $5 into the $8 pot. Your opponent then calls very quickly.
On the turn a 5(h) and again your opponent checks very quickly and now the decision is up to you. You analyze the hand over and think to yourself “my opponent called my raise quickly and after the flop check/called very quickly and once again has checked very quickly”, so after thinking to yourself you believe that he is weak so you decide to bet $12 into an $18 pot. It is now up to your opponent and instead of acting quickly he is now taking his time which should now set the alarm off in your head. After using up most of his time allowed he raises the minimum which should once again set the alarm off in your head.
After your opponent has min. raised, you look back and analyze the hand once again and you go over the fact that he is in the small blind and called your raise very quickly, after the flop your opponent quickly checks and you decide to bet which he calls very quickly, then on the turn when a 5(h) appears which could complete a straight draw your opponent then very quickly again checks and you decided to bet 2/3 the size of the pot which is a standard bet and now it is up to your opponent who after acting quickly before decides now to take his time. You have to think to yourself that he before he acted quickly and now he must be thinking not of calling or folded, he must be thinking of raising and how much to raise as he does not want to scare you away.
After you analyze this hand you will come to realize that yes he was the small blind and the blinds do call raises easier than anyone on the table just because of the fact that they already have money invested, so with that information you must put him on a wide range of hands. When the flop came out 9-2-7 he could have checked/called a pair or a 6-8 which would give him an open ended straight draw. After the 5 came on the turn he once again checked quickly to maybe induce a bet from you since he had made his straight or even 2 pair, so he decides to raise you the minimum. The best play in this position would be to just fold and wait for another hand later.
There is one thing to be careful though with the timing tell and that is be careful and study your opponents because online pros know about this and they do sometimes use it to bluff or sometimes even extract more money, so the best thing is to be cautious and just know your opponents and take notes which the online poker sites have an option that allows you to take notes on players.
