Chat your way to a Win in Online Poker

One of the challenging aspects of playing poker online is the lack of tells. When you play in a live setting you can see your opponent swallow when the ace hits after he reraised you pre flop and figure your top pair is beating his Kings. This is not easy to do online, where you can't see or hear your opponent. This doesn't mean you can't read them, however, especially if they like to chat.

The chat function in many an online poker room seems to serve the purpose of light conversation, mostly automatic, reflexive chats like "nh" (nice hand) and "gl" (good luck) and the like.

Sometimes it allows those who are looking for a soapbox or a bit more attention than they get at home to onload on the table (fortunately most poker rooms allow you to block annoying players from chatting with you). Every once in a while, however, it gives you a window into the other player's thought process, which is sort of like giving you their ATM code.

If you can tell that a player can't help but taunt when he is bluffing, for example, then the next time he accompanies a large raise with the words "you are a fish", he's probably got a hand full of nothing.

Granted online chat does not offer the clear tell system that live play does, but it can help you out from time to time. Typically the tells you look for when playing online are betting patterns, but every once in a while a person will "run their mouth" when they should be quiet online, just like in real life.

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