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Practicing Active Reads And Telling Strategies

While learning how to read a person at the poker table may be a skill that most experienced poker player work on, one of the hardest parts of tell’s is keeping an active eye on the table for signs. I have had my own troubles with keeping my eye on the other players, and have developed a few techniques that will help any poker player get tells and actively watch for them at all times.


Keep That Head Up
While playing your next game, follow each player around the board with your eyes as they check and bet and make a mental note on it. Rather than strategizing your next move or checking what cards you are holding again, watching others when its not your turn is your greatest advantage. TV’s and other distractions can become easy to stare at while you wait at a larger table, but you may be losing ground to a more aggressive player.


Single Them Out
I find it easiest to stay on top of reading the players if you focus on one or two at a time. This will prevent you from getting distracted and forgetting all together that you were watching them in the first place. Now, while you make a mental note of the players cards and how they reacted during each turn, try and predict their next move. You will find that the more you observe individuals rather than the whole table, the easier it will become to find those essential tells that the player gives off.


At The Next Game
I also find that working on reading others actively works best on a game-to-game basis. Have a goal for your next game to be able to find a tell on each player and work for it. Setting a goal for each game works well, so go ahead and choose one prior to playing poker.


In Conclusion
The three strategies here are easy and great ways to keep yourself on top of getting tells on other players. Getting these tells may be one of the hardest parts of poker, but only for the fact that many players can’t keep their attention span long enough to do it. By forcing yourself to pay attention, singling out individual players and setting goals at your games, you can easily become the new psychic of your poker group or table.