I had a convo with a friend of mine about betting patterns as a tell and how much you could read from your weak opponents on the way they bet. we were going back in forth about what we seen over the years in betting from different players and I wanted to know from the Two Plus Two community what do you think some betting patterns mean from weak or reg players.

Sorry for what will be an unhelpful post, and sorry if the following semi-rant should have been its own thread (or LC post) in a different forum altogether:

I don't mind making theory or poker-math posts on here, but personally I don't like the idea of sharing any kind of tells with the community. If I were to tell you that such and such line is a bluff 90% of the time, and then this thread got thousands of views, the poker population as a whole would start balancing the line and the tell would lose value. Players in the know would also be taking more money from the oblivious before I had a chance to, leaving me with a smaller share of the money when I'm the one who did the actual work of discovering the tell on my own from experience and observation (not that plenty of other observant people didn't also discover it themselves or wouldn't have eventually).

Sure, helping people with theory improves the population's play too, but listing tells is just spoon-feeding imo and takes away some of the skill of the game (observing others and catching your own tendencies). If I teach someone the concept of EV and Sklansky dollars, he still has plenty of work to do before that translates to winning. But if I teach him that X is a bluff 90% of the time, it takes no skill for him to just always call in the case of X (and to not give off the obvious tell himself). It moves exploitative poker closer to being a recipe, while simultaneously making exploitative poker less relevant (which no one should want).

Ahhhhhhh ok??? It was just a question. If people wanna put there 2 cents in its cool. I appreciate your reply and you are right in some points. But then again we do have some beginners who would maybe like to know about betting patterns.

I find bet sizing is an individual thing. One person donks small as a blocker. The next donks small with the nuts. I just have to figure out how each individual thinks. Its something I pay a lot of attention too. OP let us know what you have found.

Online at microstakes, players are habitual in bet-sizing, often telegraphing the strength of their hands. It's usually a case of small bet=weak, big=strong, but a minority of players (usually aggrofish) do the opposite: betting big as a bluff, but betting small (or checking) with decent hands.
Taking notes on bet-size tells is possibly more important than referring to HUD stats.

I should have prefaced my remarks with, I don't blame you for asking. I also don't blame others who don't share my philosophy and might therefore provide helpful responses. But my sharing those thoughts might have got some other posters thinking. Then again, maybe I'm being paranoid and it's unrealistic that threads like these will change poker.

/ preemptive derail

Yeah I most Def agree with you. I see that even at 1/2 live games.

I agree with Arty. One of the most universal tells is someone who is trying to play a small pot with a small hand or a big pot with a big hand. But I make a lot of my profit from people who habitually violate that rule.

Betting pattern tells for weak players is really universal like everybody said but yeah its either one or the other

small bet=weak
big bet=strong

small bet=strong
Big bet=weak

and there is also some a lots of weak playing who doesnt have any pattern cause they dont even know what there are doing most of the time.

All you have to do is pay attention of the player , Position,stack,type players and what he likes to play even weak or not

Something that I have realised is quite easy to identify is if a player has used the auto play check option, then it is often because their hand is quite weak. They may even have selected the Check/Fold button should there have been a raise. This should be considered in the next round of betting if the next card to be dealt appears to be of no use.

Equally, if a player appears to have used the auto raise option then it would be wise to assume that the player has a strong hand and would raise regardless of the betting before him.

I'm new on here on keen to contribute so sorry if I'm stating the obvious!

On sites where they have built in bet size buttons like 1/2 pot 2/3 pot etc. It's easy to tell once you figure out which button they are using for which part of their range.

Had a guy who I figured out would always bet 1/2 pot with trash on turn, always 2/3 pot with strength.

Just like how Laro and OLBM said, its all the obvious things and pretty much paying attention so i agree with you guys. I played like 2 nights ago and was at a table with guys who were literally playing there hands faced up! An ol timer who thought he was clint eastwood tossing five dollar chips when he had something big and literally, massively over betting the pot when he had nothing! So many tells from these donks. Yet again it is the 1/2 level so I like to take advantage of these yahoos.