Read About Common Poker Tells (#5): The Chips

Common Poker Tells (#5): The Chips

The most common action a player takes at the table is to fold; you don’t get a lot of useful information when a player folds. The second most common action is to not fold, which requires the player to bet. Betting action requires using your chips and chips are the source of many different tells. If you are going to repeat an action over and over in a tournament situation then you want to complete that action the same way each time, so as to not give off any tells but players do not move their chips the same every time and how they move them is very, very telling.

There is a powerful tendency when dealt a strong hand or when you flop a big hand to look at your chips or even reach over and touch your chips. Don’t do it! That is a dead giveaway that you are preparing to bet. Watch for it in other players, particularly on the flop.

Chip tricks or simply playing with chips can also be a tell. What about the guy who is always shuffling his chips, you know the one-handed split-and-stack move that everyone learns (see picture above). What does it tell you when he suddenly stops doing that? Has he made a hand? Is he unable to do his little chip trick and think at the same time?

Attaching the chip movement to the right read is key to this tell but the more important practices are for you not have a chip tell but to watch for them in your opponents.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Forum Post #106