Poker Chip Tells

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Just about every poker player messes with their poker chips when they play. They’ll stack ‘em and shuffle ‘em, they’ll flip ‘em and twirl ‘em; and when it comes to betting they’ll splash ‘em or place them in neat stacks. If you’re paying attention, watching how people play with their poker chips can add some extra cash to your bankroll. Here’s a couple of poker chip tells to watch out for.

Wait for Them to Stop

There is one or two in every game you play. The player is constantly shuffling their chips. They seem to have a pattern of betting shuffling and folding those chips! However observe closely when there is an unexpected stop in the activity, after a bet. When this happens it is very possible that they do not have a winning hand and are not expecting cash out.

When people have made hands they’re relaxed. Chances are they’d shuffle on with a made hand. The fact that they’ve stopped shuffling their poker chips shows that they’re nervous. They don’t want you to call. In this situation, raise. I’m willing to bet they fold.

Throwing down the chips

Now this behavior is a little more subtle and not always so easy to detect. You have seen carefree players who always throw their chips into the pot, enjoying the rattle of the chips. However there are also those cautious players who always stack their chips neatly when they bet but suddenly throw down their chips into the pot with authority. Now what is going on?

Remember that in poker strong is weak and weak is strong so when you have a careful player make an uncharacteristically aggressive move, you’re probably looking at a bluff. Raise. At the very least you’ll gain more information about your adversary so you’ll know what it means the next time they splash the pot.

Poker chip tells aren’t about looking for something a player does habitually. The best tells are breaks in a player’s usual pattern. If someone has been doing something throughout the game and suddenly their behavior changes, then something is up. It may be worth a few bucks to find out what that change means.

You will find that many poker players practice poker chip tricks at home, just to look cool. However this works against them, as fiddling with their chips becomes second nature to them. In moments of crisis they will suddenly stop handling their chips and give away their game. So keep your eyes on the chips and make yourself some extra bucks.