Hallabet

 Step 4: Keep reducing their possible holdings on the turn and river

 Just like you did in the second step for the flop play, you can continue reducing your opponent’s possible holdings based on their actions and community cards on the turn and river.

 So after seeing it once, you’ll be able to remove these holdings from their range in similar spots.

 You can quickly get a feel of player tendencies and use this information until you notice that your particular opponent adjusts their play, and then react accordingly.

 Learning to put your opponent on a range instead of guessing a specific hand is the best way to read other players.

 However, you can make even better decisions if you take into consideration all the additional information available to you.

 Given that you don’t physically see your opponent when playing online, there are only a few things you can consider.

 You should closely monitor bet sizing and how long your opponent takes to make decisions.

 Let’s start with the first one.

 Although probably the best indication of your opponent’s strength, this information is massively underused in games.

 Players are unlikely to bet small as a bluff. Of course, they can do that with medium-strength hands, but you will rarely see complete air when facing such a bet. For the most part, they are simply trying to see a cheap showdown.

 This is very player dependent but more often than not people try to choose over bets with strong holdings. This shouldn’t be applied against regulars who balance their ranges.

 However, if you see someone using truly big sizing, especially on dry board, they are more likely to be value betting.

 Most players understand that your range is polarized in these situations, where you either have a strong hand that is going to call no matter what or a weak one, which will be folding even to a smaller bet – so it makes no point to over bet as a bluff.

 These are just guidelines but could be a good starting point when observing your opponents.

 2. Observe how much time they spend making decisions

 Many players leave a lot of valuable information on the table by not considering the timing of others.

 Some actions can be a very good indication of your opponent’s hand strength:

 Almost always an indication of a weak hand. It shows that your opponent didn’t have to spend any time to think through the decision, which is very unlikely to happen with a strong holding.

Bookies

 Can indicate strength, except for a c-bet. When a player instantly decides to continuation bet, they’re less likely to have a strong holding, but in most other cases you should be aware of this information.

 Very unlikely to have a strong holding. From my experience, a bet in this situation will take down the most, the majority of the time.

 Betting or raising after taking a lot of time

 This is very strong. I rarely see players bluffing with this line, and the reason they take more time is to appear weak, so you shouldn’t be fooled by this action.

 Generally indicates more strength. We can follow the same logic as in the previous point that players tend to take more time to look weaker and encourage another bet from you.

 It goes without saying that this could change depending on the players, so you shouldn’t base your decision on this information alone but instead consider it along with other information.

 Moreover, some players may try to fake these tells and act the opposite, so observe your opponent and be open to adjusting your strategy.

 Moreover, some players may try to fake these tells and act the opposite, so observe your opponent and be open to adjusting your strategy.

 How To Read Opponents In Live Poker Games

 While there are only a few ways to read your opponents when playing online, you can get a lot of additional information in live games.

 That being said, there’s not much difference between online and live games regarding sizing and timing tells, so the same logic applies as covered in the online section.

 However, there are a lot of other factors to consider that I’ll split into two different parts – physical and verbal tells.

 Player hesitates and then bets or raises

 In my experience, a player is very unlikely to be bluffing with this line of action. Also, players rarely have suited hands when double-checking, so that’s worth noticing.

 Playing with chips in an unusual way

 Indicates that your opponent is relaxed and less likely to be bluffing. Of course, if they always play with chips in a specific way, ignore this, but if they usually sit quietly and out of nowhere start doing some tricks after betting, they’re probably not bluffing.

 2. Physical tells that indicate weakness