What's in a Poker Player's Name?

Can you judge players by their online handles? Is Mad Dog 666 likely to be a 'maniac', betting every hand to the river in a wild flurry of action? And is Jam Doughnut a 'weak-tight' player, whom you can easily push off a hand? And can you judge a player by the picture they choose to represent themselves with at LuckyAce Poker, for example?

Rather than focusing on the names or images people give themselves, you should concentrate on closely observing their play. After 10 or 15 minutes, you should be able to form a reliable impression of what style of player they are from the way they play their cards, rather than whether or not they have a macho name or picture. Also watch out for players with female names - some of them are men in disguise, hoping that you are either going to take it easy on them, bluff into them or chat them up! Conversely, some women prefer not to give any indication of their gender, either because they do not want to give their opponents any unnecessary information, or simply to avoid attracting male attention.

Some players use the same handle at every site they play, whereas others prefer to use a different handle at each site. It is certainly an advantage to have multiple handles if you fear that your opponents are taking notes on you, since they won't recognise you when you are playing at a different site.

Other Tells
You can often pick up how good a player is purely by whether they use the chat box or not. In general, good players do not waste their time chatting at length to their opponents (or moaning about bad beats). Excessive chatting by an opponent is often a good indicator that they are a weak player, particularly if they are moaning about the play of others at the table.

It is often possible to gain an idea about an opponent's style before they have even received their first hand. If they post a blind in early or middle position (rather than waiting for the big blind) then they are usually impatient to get the action underway - you can expect plenty of loose action from such an early poster. Someone who has been routinely auto-posting blinds but then stops doing so may be about to leave the game, and thus could be less inclined to gamble in a marginal situation.

Sometimes you can draw information about a player from the size of their buy-in. Players who buy-in for the minimum allowed are typically playing with 'scared' money, and are good candidates to go broke. Conversely, good, experienced players often buy-in for an amount larger than the 'recommended' table buy-in, because they know that they will experience big swings (and may want to use their stack size to intimidate their opponents).

Another tell applies only to pot-limit and no-limit games. Players sometimes bet very strange amounts purely to make their bets look larger than they really are. In that case, most probably the player does not want you to call (or even raise!).

Showing Cards
Many players make a habit of proudly showing off their winning hands even when they don't need to. Although this practice is not strictly a tell, it does provide you with free information on how they play and should be encouraged wherever possible. Some players like to make a comment like 'nh' (nice hand) or 'yes, you had me beaten there' to reinforce this behaviour, inducing the show-off to keep displaying their winning hands for free. Conversely, there are also players who often show their hands when they have just endured a bad beat. Apart from providing the same information on their playing style, this can also sometimes indicate that they are feeling sorry for themselves and may be about to go on tilt.

By the same token, it is undesirable for you to provide your opponents with free information about the cards you are playing, unless you have an ulterior motive. For example, you may sometimes wish to reveal that you had a big hand when you originally opened the betting with a late position raise, in order to set up an out-and-out steal in a similar situation somewhere down the line.