Seriously, unless you are playing with your buddies in home games and they have played poker 3 times in their lives... you are wasting your time.

When you play in casinos 99.8% of players, even recreational ones, know that they have to be careful not to tip their hand.

Except for probably two hands in my whole life, Ive never seen them. Not the ones described in books.

Are you joking?

I have spotted the tells described in books plenty of time. Sometimes they are hard to catch and other times they are so obvious that villain may as well be playing with their hand turned up.

I will admit that finding tells is not an easy thing to do. Most of the time you can figure things out by the board or betting that is happening but tells do exist. I even had one guy tell me about a small little micro tell that he spotted... I was able to work on it to make sure that it can't be spotted anymore but it was a very small detail that most people wouldn't be able to pick up on.

Don't listen to him, Jack.

Don't waste your time looking for tells.

The games will be better if everyone just "let it all hang out" anyhow.

Don't bother, just watch the games on TV and the harmonic motions of the young and agile servers (guys or gals or whatever, your choice.)

Hakuna Metata.

Look for people looking for tells. They are obvious (because who actually hides that?).
Then feed them tells.

eh, im sure tells are a thing and do work. Just takes practice to pick up some for players at the table. Takes more time than people think as well

Many people just dont pay close attention to their peers. They are not used to it.

epic bump

Knowing how 'deep' (in the technical poker sense) your opponent thinks is key to all of this.

The most common tell I come across and act on is when someone says they are just ready to go home and goes all in especially in tournaments. 99% of the time they have the effective nuts or the nuts.

Not sure this even deserved a bump ...

But in the two cents world ... I'll stir the pot a bit. While I agree that unless you are playing in a Reg heavy environment your 'looking' efforts may not feel fruitful at times, they will help your 'spotting' abilities in the future. And I say this with a full effort to break down the difference in the two.

Looking takes effort, you put a concerted effort into collecting data on a specific Player. But then they rack up and leave after 90 minutes .. was it a waste of time?

Spotting takes experience (maybe some skill) in that you 'recall' a similar spot that you've previously played and how it went down. The more you play the more you realize that 'a lot' of Players play the same way. Thus you can use your experience to act in a manner that hopefully results in a positive result for your stack in that 'exact' spot.

IMO nothing is a 'waste of time'. Sure, you may find out that the 'reward' for your efforts is less than you feel your efforts are worth, but at least now you know whereas you didn't know before.

Taking 'key' aspects of poker and not applying them only gives your opponents an advantage over you .. I'll take it. GL

Where are you getting the 99.8% number from? That seems waaaaay too high. I'd set the real number around 30%

Yeah they're usually major douches and are commonly personable. They think when I realize it I spend the rest of the time verbally messing with them.

It might not be that common but its not a waste of time. A read on someone in a big hand can make your whole session profitable or not.

So You are at the poker table. Presumably, you want to MAKE money.
You folded. What BETTER +EV activity do you think one should partake in?

Well, I think reading a poker book at the table could also be +EV too

Maybe something like this one?

I feel like people don't understand what "looking for tells" is referring to. We're not suggesting it'll be like in the movies where someone who wipes their brow is bluffing. It's more subtle - things like breathing patterns, bet sizing, etc.

Its not a waste of time but also are always individual specific. You can't take a "tell" and apply it to the player population. But there are different things to look for.

Breathing is the most obvious but also the most unreliable. Someone's heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing can be affected by different factors. Some players get nervous when bluffing, some players get nervous when they have it, and some players like me get nervous in a big pot regardless of my hand strength. I keep a slower, steady foot tap and take slow deep breathes when I am in a big pot.

Twitching in the forearm muscle is also something I notice a lot. If someone is sitting with their arms crossed, but nervously tapping their finger, you can see the forearm moving.

Ive made great hero calls from live reads and Ive made horrible pay offs from bad live reads. They shouldn't guide your strategy too much, but can make the difference on a close spot where multiple decisions are roughly the same EV.