Ways To Tell If A Player Is Bluffing

Here are some good ways to tell if a player is bluffing. Hopefully they will enable you to pick off a couple of bluffs, and make some extra cash.

1) The player slams his chips into the pot. - Players who have strong hands rarely try to make themselves even more forceful. They usually just slip their chips gently into the pot. Weak players are the ones who slam the chips into the pot, hoping that their action will intimidate you into folding.

2) The player acts almost immediatly when it is his turn. - This tell isn't 100% accurate, because it could also mean that they player has a very good hand, so it should be used in conjunction with other tells. However what you can know from this is that if a player wait a fair amount of time before acting, then they probably aren't bluffing, they probably have a relatively strong hand and are deciding just how strong it is, and how to milk the most money out of it. The hands that can act immediately are the ones that it doesn't matter what the other player does, the hands that are either so strong they can't be beat, or so weak that they have to get the other player to fold.

3) The player stares you down after he puts his chips into the pot. - This is another variation on the 'I'm acting like I have a strong hand, but really i'm very weak theme. ' Players who are really very strong don't go out of their way to antagonize other players and try to get them to fold. It is the players who are bluffing who try to add a physical intimidation to their play and get the person to fold.

4) The player overbets the pot on the river - When the river comes, there are obviously no more cards to come, and no more drawing hands. Thus players with strong hands aren't looking to push out draws, they are looking to get paid off by weaker hands. Thus a player with a strong hand usually doesn't make more than a pot sized bet. In fact they often make a bet that is 1/3 or so of the pot size in order to induce calls from people thinking that they have to call since they put so much money into the pot already. So when you see a player, especially a late position player, make a bet that is 1.5, 2 times or more the size of the pot, they most likely have a weak holding that would not survive a showdown, thus they are trying to get the other players to fold.

5) They player is sitting upright in his chair, near the table - Players with strong hands tend to sit back in their chair, they are relaxed and confident that they are going to win. Additionally they don't want to sit up and be all the more intimidating. Players with weak hands are the ones who generally sit up. They are anxious to see if their bluff worked, and could not relax if their life depended on it.

6) If a player is sloppy with stacking his chips - Generally, conservative players tend to make their chips into nice organized stacks. These players are more likely to only bet when they have something of a hand. Loose, aggressive players are more sloppy with their chips and tend to leave them in disorganized piles. They players with loose piles are more likely to throw those chips around in an attempt at a bluff. What you often see is a set of nice organized chip stacked up, with sloppy ones on top. What this means is that they player is currently winning. The organized chips are the initial buy in, the sloppy ones are the profit. He is much more likely to play loose with the profit, but if it bites into his buy in he will only put the chips up with a solid hand.