Looking for expert tips to elevate your game to a next level. Then, this article is for you as we bring you some expert tips from the BetMGM Brand Ambassador Darren Elias, a renowned American poker player with over $13 million in live earnings and several prestigious live titles including WPT and PGT title victories under his belt.
A regular name in the high roller scene, Elias is currently ranked 47th on the USA’s All-Time Money List. He is the most successful player to have competed at the World Poker Tour, where he has won close to $5 million in live cashes. He has won over 8 WPT titles and has more than 13 final table finishes to his name. He most famously won the WPT Borgata Championship in 2014, winning $843,744, which remains his career-best score to date.
Most recently, Elias shared some crucial tips on picking up tells and collecting information in a video clip that was posted by BetMGM Poker on their X yesterday. Here is what he had to share in his recent video!
1- Picking Up Tells And Collecting Information In Online Poker
According to Elias, there are the two major factors we can use to read opponents in online poker: Timing & Bet Sizing
Timing refers to the speed of a player’s actions at the table. For instance, how long a player is taking to make a move/decision on a particular street. Sometimes, quicker actions can indicate weaker hands, although it can go the other way as well. On the other hand, delay in actions or longer deliberations might suggest strong holdings.
Bet sizing refers to how much a player bets, which can reveal information or give you an idea about the strength of their hands. A lot of players often use preset betting options (like pot, half pot, two-thirds, etc), which can tell you about their tendencies based on their bet sizing. While professional players are pretty good at balancing out those tells but weaker players may always click pot when they have a good holding and half pot when they don’t have a good hand. So picking up on these things is important for reading your opponents or their tendencies in online poker.
2. Gathering Information And Picking Up Tells In Live Poker
Elias concluded his insightful video with some handy tips for reading opponents in a live poker arena, which is much different from online poker in terms of gathering information and reading your opponents at the table.
In online poker, there is limited information and players primarily bank on timing tells and bet sizing. However, when you move to a live arena, there is a wealth of information available and it allows for a better understanding of your opponents through direct interaction and observation. It gives you physical tells as you can see your opponent’s emotional state, watch their eyes, read their facial expressions, how they handle chips, how often or how many hands they are playing in an orbit. Are they on the phone or are they tilted? So it gets a more complex game in the live arena versus online poker space.
So, you get much more information compared to online poker, which tends to be more straightforward focusing on numerical data and patterns. In a live poker setting, you can observe physical tells, read body language, how players react in different situations and also look into changes in their behaviour during the game.
Keep following PokerProNews for more expert tips to excel at live and online poker.
Source: BetMGM Poker
