 Using Tells to Crush Online SNG's and MTT
I was thinking about what I could offer for value as a good poker tip for this post and decided to discuss online tells common in tournament play.
I always enjoyed playing tournaments on medium sized sites such as Absolute Poker, Poker.com etc, as you get to see many of the same players day in and day out and get to know their playing styles. With many average players it’s extremely easy to pick up tells that will clue you in to exactly what the player has in his hand.
The most common tell though that I’ve been able to pick up on is regarding the size of a continuation bet.
A long time ago I had picked up on a trend that the majority of pre flop raisers put a continuation bet in on the flop of approximately 2/3 the size of the pot when they miss the flop, Examples: they have pocket 9’s and the flop comes up K 10 2, or they have AK and the flop comes up 9 High.
This is a very easy tell to pick up on but before using it determine how you will play the rest of the hand you must understand that tells are only one of many tools in poker, this information should be taken into account with a variety of other info and not be used solely to determine you play.
Now I’m not suggesting going all in every time someone bets 2/3 of the pot as a continuation bet in a tournament because blindly doing so you’ll go broke quickly. What I do suggest is to take notes either mentally or in a note pad on what players are doing often the flop when they have preflop raised. Get to know the players play book and note things like: Uses slow leads, checks big hands, bets 2/3 continuation on missed flops, etc.
If you play with the same group of players regularly (which is common on most medium sized sites) these tells will all start to add up and give you a HUGE advantage over other players.
The first thing I would start with is noting plays on the flop for all the regular players as having an edge playing post flop on these players will give you the biggest edge over these players.
Once you’ve determined trends and developed a good understanding of the other players post flop play book, start taking notes on there starting hand ranges and look for any variations in there preflop raises. Example: I know quite a few players who make this 2/3 continuation bet on missed flop and will always limp with 22-99, raise 4x with TT-QQ, raise 3x with AA, KK and raise 5x with AK. While these players play a fairly solid game I’m sure they don’t have the slightest clue that a few observant pro players at their table have their number and they’re typically playing with their cards face up against these players.
The next thing to start noting is what this player is capable of, example I’ve been able to put a player on AK and I’ll raise them big with 6 4 on a 3 7 9 flop and have them move back all in on me. I’ve seen it numerous times and also enough where I’ve had no choice but to call being deeply priced into the hand. Be sure you know who is bluff-able, some players are not willing to be bluffed and will decide to commit all their chips blindly.
Also keep in mind to update your notes daily.
At one site I used to play at 3 years ago, I see that the worlds biggest fish who was dead money to almost all of our $50 SNG’s is now the top tournament player on the site cashing big in MTT and dominating the $200 SNG’s regularly. I got a chance to talk with this player recently and found out he had cashed for $14,000 at Stars and faced the fact that he was a losing player who go lucky to get his money back and decided to start learning poker.
Now even if you decide not to use this information to pick up tells on other players, at least it’s been brought to your conscious level. Keep in mind if you play the same way all the time there are certain players who are able to play you just like you had your cards turned over on the table. The most successful tournament players are those who mix it up and are able to take down pots with any 2 cards, and fold when they're not going to be able to pick up pot.
Anyways to many readers this information might seem elementary but hopefully it helps someone who reads it.
Good luck at the tables,
Jim  | 
Online Poker Tournament Tips 
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