Tell (poker)
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In poker, a tell is a detectable change in a player's behavior that gives clues to that player's assessment of their hand. Possible tells include leaning forward or back, placing chips with more or less force, fidgeting, changes in breathing or tone of voice, direction of gaze and actions with the cards, cigarettes, or drinks.
For example, a player who believes his hand to be weak, hoping to bluff, may throw his chips into the pot forcefully and with a direct gaze at a player he hopes to discourage from calling.
Tells may be common to a class of players or unique to a single player. A player gains an advantage if she observes another player's tell, particularly if that action is unconscious and reliable. However, more advanced players may fake tells, hoping to lead their opponents into costly traps when they rely on the false information. So the observing, creating, and evaluating of tells can add another level to the play of poker.
It is important to note that a player's tells only give information about that player's own assessment of their cards, and thus is only reliable in the context of a player who has accurately assessed their own hand. An unskillful player may reliably give information in a tell, but that information may be an unreliable guide to the player's hand if the player cannot assess the strength of a hand in a particular game.
A number of tells are common to most poker players -- when someone with normally-still hands bets, and their hands shake, it's a release of tension indicating that they are confident in their cards. As well, most players act -- as in, try to conceal their intentions -- and generally behave aggressively or loudly with a weak assessment, while acting meek and mild with strong ones. More in-depth information can be gleaned from Mike Caro's comprehensive book on tells; his Book of Tells (ISBN 0897461002) is now a standard reference on the subject.
David Mamet's 1987 movie House of Games includes an interesting discussion and visual reference to tells as an essential part of the plot. The movie Rounders contains an even more subtle use of strategy: at one point, "Mike" discovers a tell in his opponent (that he eats cookies in a particular way after he has bet a very strong hand), and after using it once, he reveals to the opponent that he has this tell; although this eliminates the usefulness of the tell itself, it upsets his opponent so much that it affects his later play.