A "tell" in poker refers to a behavior, gesture, facial expression, or any other form of verbal or non-verbal communication, that is involuntary and can provide information about a player's hand.
In the poker world, tells occupy an important place. Everyone knows the expression “poker face”, which means trying to hide your emotions behind a frozen and indifferent face so as not to reveal anything about the strength of your hand.
An emblematic example of the importance of tells comes to us from the movies with the character Le Chiffre in the movie Casino Royale. James Bond, with his keen eye, manages to spot a crucial tell : The Chiffre subconsciously touches his face near his injured eye when he bluffs. James Bond then succeeds in winning the game using this indication.
However, in real poker practice, the relevance of tells is subject to debate and many question their importance, especially when faced with experienced players (tells can be more obvious and therefore more usable with recreational players, who are less used to controlling their spontaneous reactions).
Zachary Elwood, a recognized expert in the analysis of poker tells, summarizes the situation as follows:
Tells are a small part of the game of poker, so don't waste too much energy on it.
However, there are still a few tells that are relatively common and easy to spot, which can give you reliable information about your opponent's game. The one we present to you in the rest of this article is one of them.
Here, in one sentence, is what this tell is about:
“When a player looks at his two cards for a long time after receiving them, they almost never have a very good hand.”
This video on Zachary Elwood's YouTube channel illustrates this:
We see that the player in question receives his cards and then looks at them for a long time before hiding them.
To explain why this behavior indicates that the player probably doesn't have a very good hand (by "very good hand," we mean AA, KK, AK, or slightly less strong), Zachary Elwood draws an interesting parallel with the movie “Blood Diamond.”
In one scene from the film, Solomon Vandy, a fisherman torn from his family and forced to work in diamond mines, discovers a rare and highly valuable pink diamond. His first instinct is to look away to avoid attracting the attention of his captors.
Similarly, when we find a very good hand like a pair of aces or kings, the first instinct of the vast majority of players is to put their cards back down on the table to hide them and not draw attention to them.
Therefore, when a player looks at the cards they have received for a long time, it is unlikely that they have a very good hand.
<span class="inarticle_section">🚨 However, be careful, the opposite is not true! The fact that a player looks at their cards for a short moment should not lead to the conclusion that they have a very good hand. Indeed, it is very common for players to look at their cards for a very short time, even with bad hands.</span>
If you want to learn more about this tell, you can watch this video by Zachary Elwood, which details the underlying psychological mechanisms with illustrations of real game situations.
