Five New Poker Tells from Playing in Live Casinos

Playing live poker used to be taken for granted.

Since the 1950’s, players have been able to find a game, whether it was in the formative years in Canada or latterly, a casino or bar in just about every town. Nobody who played poker live could have foreseen the pandemic when it came. But when it did, the game faced the greatest shutdown in its history.

In the weeks and months after poker was shut down, Las Vegas found itself at the epicentre of the drama. With cases on the rise in the United States, all the major cardrooms were closed. Many players found themselves turning to the best online casinos to get their fix.

As casinos reopened a few months later, they weren’t the same. Gone were some of the tables, and seats at each table, affecting player attendances dramatically. Reducing payers who are able to play in some casinos by up to 40%. As full ring tables became six-max games, players were expected to wear face masks at the table during play and often, play behind plexiglass viewscreens.

So, was a return to playing live poker worth it? For many players, the answer was still a definite yes.

One such player was Arron Fletcher, a British poker pro specialising in cash games who lives in Vegas. We caught up with him — online and socially distanced, just to be safe — and checked in about what going back to playing live poker has really been like.

“People don’t speak as much,” he said. “Particularly in pots, which sucks the most. The eyes are always a good tell, however — hands and eyes have always been more of a giveaway than the mouth in my opinion.”

After speaking with Fletcher about returning to the game, we’ve highlighted five new tells that if you pay attention to, can help make you money in a post-COVID word of playing live poker alongside a number of restrictions. You might also want to check that you’re not giving anything extra away!

1. The Eyes Have It

On Fletcher’s point about eyes, where a poker player looks is now more important than ever before. They say the eyes are the ‘window to your soul’ and never has been truer in poker than it is today. The reason Fletcher and other professionals at his level are so good at this is because they watch your eyes so closely.

From where you look when you catch premium hands or flop a set, to looking back at cards or away from the table, what you do with your eyes has never been so vital to disguise. Many players, of course, wear sunglasses to disguise any eye-tells from reaching other players, but wearing a face mask too, they might not be bothering when they return to the live felt. You can take advantage of that… as long as you can hold your own poker face.

2. Masking Your Mouth

While most players are forced to wear face masks to play in the first place, meaning their mouths are covered, most players hardly grin at the table at all these days… unless you’re Doug Polk, that is.

Despite this, the face mask can actually reveal plenty about a player. When they wish to communicate, it can mask their words and stop them getting their message across in any kind of subtle manner. It can also stop players saying things during heads-up play. Will Kassouf made money at the 2016 World Series of Poker by using speech play at every turn.

While Kassouf’s table talk might have annoyed several opponents and the floor staff who weren’t used to being bluffed for the dollar coffee, it was undoubtedly a large weapon from his armoury. That’s an armoury that can’t be used to the same effect now.

3. Body Language

There can be no doubt that a player’s body language is affected by the restriction of plexi-glass dividers being used at the table. Many players use their space at the table to influence other players by motioning at the felt. This is infinitely harder to do nowadays with physical restrictions forcing body language to concertina in on itself.

Think of it like watching a smaller snake than one that you’re used to observing. Rather than a rearing of the head and a rattling tail, it might be a slithering neck and a twitching tail. It’s the same with people — where once you might have been looking for an opponent to pull their arms inward to instinctively protect premium cards, their elbows might already be clamped fairly tight to their sides due to the protective barriers that have been implemented to protect their health and the health of their opponents.

Instead of the larger body language tells, you might now be looking for those signs a player has or hasn’t got what they are representing by a nervous pull of their arms or a hunching of the shoulders where before their body might have given off more obvious signs. The physical tells are still there, it’s just going to take looking for them in a different way — as well as watching how you behave yourself.

4. Handing it to Opponents

Hands have always been a giveaway in the game of poker, as Arron Fletcher confirmed to us. From how the chips are handled to how the hands check hole cards or gesture to others and the dealer, hands are even more important than ever.

Watching another player’s hands during gameplay may already be second nature to you, but if it isn’t, then watching for signs of nervousness or excitement via that opponent’s hands should be something you start doing as a matter of urgency.

Post-COVID, poker players are pulled in towards themselves physically when there are plastic boundaries between them. That energy has to go somewhere, and it often comes out via a player’s hand actions. Keep a strong eye on how players move their hands at the table.

5. Game Choice

Choosing which game to play might have been a difficult decision for most before lockdown, weighed up between their skillsets and the many options, but post-lockdown, many players will be looking for any game they can play.

This means that some who only ever played full ring tournaments will take a seat at a six-handed cash game, and those who stick to $1/$2 might risk $2/$4 if they are spending too long on a waiting list.

Take advantage of these players by sticking to your own specialities and keeping yourself at comfortable level. Because that way, you can use the skills you possess and the information in this breakdown to continue to succeed in live poker post-lockdown.

Above all, playing poker at a live casino in the current climate is something to look forward to with safety firmly in mind. Make sure that you are abiding by the casino’s health and safety regulations and enjoy playing live poker wherever you can find a seat in your favourite game.