Poker Tells in Five-Card Stud Poker

Poker Tells, 5 Card Stud
November 15 2008

There are lots of physical tells in 5-Card Stud that people give away. Most 5-Card Stud players are recreational players who don’t employ a lot of strategy in their game. If you watch how they play certain hands, it can often tell you what type of hand they’re holding.

Voice tells are usually the first you can discover. The tone of the player’s voice usually indicates the opposite of how it sounds. If they’re trying to sound strong, they’re most often weak. This tone tell works the same for how they put their chips into the middle of the table.

Another common one is when they shuffle their cards before they look at them after the draw. Players do this to increase the excitement of drawing to a straight or flush. They want to count 7-8-9-10-X. Players with two pair don’t make such a big deal about seeing the draw card.

If a player is looking at his cards and stops after looking at only four of them, you know he missed his draw. For him, the hand is over, and there’s no sense in looking at the other card. Knowing that this player is not in the hand can change your approach.

Another tell is when an opening player looks at his draw cards and checks into you quickly; you can be pretty sure he didn’t improve. If he did he would need some time to think about his best move, not process it instantly and check off a big hand.

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