The following is a review for my poker tells video series sent in by Galvin Bay. Galvin is a professional poker player who currently plays in Macau games. He has also written some poker books (like The Art of Poker) and created poker training videos. Below he gives a review and also some notes on his experience with a couple specific tells.
I started playing live poker in 2015 and have very limited experience with physical tells. Zach’s video series successfully illuminated some of the physical tells that I was exhibiting myself. I also enjoyed learning about the psychology and motivations behind the actions of most players, and the clear distinctions drawn between several situations which might seem similar but are actually very different in nature (such as Preflop/Flop play vs Turn/River play). The bite-size length of the videos also made the information a lot easier to digest.
Some interesting things I noted:
1) For timing tells for pre-flop raises: For online play, people are usually multi-tabling, so they want to avoid timing out and snap-raise their stronger hands. When they spend more time thinking, they have a marginal holding. This is in direct contrast with live play.
The other stuff you mentioned about timing tells holds true for online play as well, including the part about snap calling on paired boards.
2) Pained expressions: [note: this is referencing the idea that people who make pained/concerned facial expressions when associated w/ a bet are generally strong] Hmm I find that I would probably have the pained expression/puzzled look when someone makes a strange play, such as when someone bets 1/3 pot on the turn, regardless of whether I’m strong or weak.