Which tells have you found are worth focusing on?

I've read a few books and watched some videos, so have a pretty good idea of the basics, but found that in real life it's actually pretty difficult to spot anything useful. I am still a bit of a beginner so spend lot of effort tracking what is happening on the table and my own hand, so trying to spot too many different tells is overwhelming.

Ideally I would like to focus on 2 or 3 tells that are helpful and somewhat reliable, but most importantly are easy to spot. I'm mainly talking live low stakes tournaments.

bet sizing tells are huge

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...achary-elwood/

see caro's book of tells

There is a whole section of this forum, in the General Poker Strategy section, devoted to behavior/tells .. check it out.

If you are playing low stakes 'daily' tournaments (under $70) then the 'turbo' like structures in these do create some betting related tendencies. You definitely see more polarizing spots since there is less time to acquire value and shallow stack sizes don't allow for very many bluffing spots once you get to the Turn and River.

I think you will find more reverse tell types of spots from these Players, especially if they are regulars. Strong means weak, weak means strong, grabbing of chips OOT to slow down a potential bettor and deceptive phrases or behavior are pretty common IMO.

One thing you will find with tells is that you need history with a Player to increase the reliability of them, which is something you don't really get in a tournament. So to 'look' for certain tells might be a stretch. What you want to do is use any tells that you see as 'added' information to your already intended path in each hand.

Although a lot of regular low stakes tournament Players don't play a lot of cash you will see very similar behavior from 'less than full buy-in' 1/2 NL Players. GL

IMO tells are only good if there is a particular quirk that a particular player always does.
It is my opinion that if you are at the point where you are counting on tells for edge your game needs to get stronger.
Also a fair % of the better players are tell aware and they will sometimes put out false tells to deceive you.

Every time someone shows an emotion so obvious you cannot not notice but their betting is the opposite, they have it. Nobody ever shakes their head, looks like he has a tough decision and then raises as a bluff. Also nobody sighs when the flush hits but then goes all in.

Also if people make the gesture with their hand (90 degree rotation) as if to say "yeah I see no other option" when going all in they have it. It looks like "yeah well gotta go all in right????", it looks ******ed when people do it and it's an obvious tell.

When people try to make it seem like they're not paying attention to the game and then suddenly raise, they always have it. Doesn't matter if it is their coffee, the waitress, the football game. Nobody is distracted enough to have to be reminded it's their turn but then go all out with a hand like 83o, they just muck nonsense hands if they're distracted. It's always aces.

Inexperienced players are incapable of talking comfortably when they're bluffing. If they start talking on their own initiative, turbo muck your cards.

If they say it's a position raise and then flat from the SB they have aces full Mike.

Tells can be tricky. At best, they can tell you when a player is stressed or emotionally engaged, though not the reason why they are stressed. Even then, tells can be faked.

In addition to sizing and timing tells, I look at posture, protective or defensive arm placement, and what they do with their feet\legs. I try to see what they do immediately in seeing the flop. I also look for intentional posturing. Players who keep telegraphing that they can't wait to call you (cutting out calling chips, displaying the stack size) are usually weak.

Be wary of spotting fear. Fear and excitement can look similar. A shaky hand, accelerated pulse, and squeaky voice can be excitement over a monster just as easily, or even more easily, as fear over a big bluff.

Also, be wary that every decent player has read Caro, Navarro, and Elwood, so fake tells are very common too.

Unfortunately everyone and their dog has read that one.

Essentially none of the ones during a hand. I'll give a single example at the end.

Fundamentally, you should work on your game and make the best decisions. If a decision is close, tells don't have a huge value because the difference in EV between the two decisions is small. If a decision is not close, you have to be absurdly confident in your read to overcome what is a boneheaded play in the absence of a read.

Peoples' overall demeanors are worth reading. Does someone play on a weekly schedule? Do they bring a backpack? What is their motivation for playing? Do they think they are winners? Do they hate you? These things are worth noting because they skew ranges.

People always look to tells like some kind of magic window to see whether someone is bluffing. But a good analogy would be like weather and climate - a tell won't give you the weather tomorrow, but a bunch of tells added up will give you the climate (the number of sunny days you'll get over the year).

The single counterexample is probably when my neighbor on the right was playing Angry Birds. He did this thing where if he was going to fold preflop, he'd keep playing (including starting a new level) while other people acted. If he had a borderline hand, he'd keep playing that level, but wouldn't start a new level. And if he wanted to play a hand, he'd pause the level. It took a while to figure this all out, but then one time he started a new level (intended to fold), but when it was folded to him he looked left (he was HJ or CO), and then raised. I realized he had a really weak hand but decided to steal the blinds. So I 3-bet him.

I was totally correct - at showdown, he had 84o.

Unfortunately, I had 3-bet him with a dominated hand.

Yet, it is amazing how often it works.

Is this a problem?

Best, most consistent tell, I find...

Be wary of players that put their hands on their cards after
a) They just made a large bet
b) they just made a bet at the river

Hands on cards is seldom used as a reverse tell.

Plenty will try the appropriate reverse tell - which may hurt you a lot more than any tell will gain you.