You squint in the glare from your giant stack of chips. The dealer slides cards across the table, but you’re not in a hurry to look. Instead, you’re staring intently at your opponent on the button.
They look at their cards, letting out a short but distinct sharp inhale. You see their pupils contract slightly as they glance at their hole cards, then they look straight to their chip stack before raising to 4x the blinds.. You glance at your cards – not good enough.
You fold your big blind. The player on the button has told you everything you need to know.
Poker is a game of incomplete information. You make the wisest decision you can with the information you have available to you. This means that being able to deduce hidden information from available information can lead to a huge advantage at the tables.
This leads us to one of the pillars of poker skill, but often the most misunderstood and misused concept in the game – reading opponents.
Poker Tells
In the heat of a game, reactions or behaviors taken by a player can potentially reveal information about their hand or mindset to other players. When a person’s subconscious behaviors give away the information they are trying to keep hidden, we refer to that as a tell.
Reading tells is about deducing hidden information from information that you already know. Very often it is also about deciding what assumptions about human behavior are likely versus possible. Nothing is ever a sure thing in an incomplete information game, but hints at someone’s likely attitude towards their cards can let you make a more informed decision when the action is on you.
Let’s say that your opponent has pushed a large bet into the pot and sits back from the table, letting out a deeply relieved sigh. This player has sent a clear signal – they aren’t engaged. The stressful time during the hand was making that bet, and now they don’t feel the need to watch intently as players decide whether to call, fold or raise.
This player’s behavior indicates that they think they have the best cards. The bet is placed, they don’t have anything to worry about. Don’t jump to conclusions too fast though! Is this typical behavior for that player? Are they feigning confidence in the hand to cover up that they don’t have absolute rags? Probably the latter. Players have a tendency to try and appear strong when they are really weak.
Tells that speak the truth are usually more subtle… like an attitude boiling over in slight, subconscious actions. It’s important to note, however, that tells are not an exact science – humans are individuals and will often react differently to the same stimuli.
Yes, brow sweat can be a sign of a sudden loss of confidence… but it can also mean that it’s just hot in that room. Or maybe that guy is particularly sweaty when he’s hungry and his tummy just rumbled. Everyone is different, and actually trusting a tell from any player requires some degree of baseline reference for their behavior. You have to watch and understand your opponent before their tells are valuable to you. If you haven’t noticed throughout life, people are quite complicated.
It’s also incredibly important to note that tells cannot change cards. Knowing a tell only changes the way that you perceive the action of the game and informs your decision based on your cards.
Recommended Reading: Mike Caro’s Book of Poker Tells
This poker classic is basically considered required reading for people who want to play live games. It predates online play, but there’s applications for the psychology of online players as well.
Caro walks you through the basic psychology of poker tells and assumptions about how behavior indicates attitude to their hand.
Knowing that a player thinks they have good or bad cards doesn’t inform you exactly what their cards are or make the result of the hand any different. It simply gives you more information so that you can make wise decisions regarding your own cards within the hand.
Online Poker Tells
It’s easy to assume that tells are only something that plays into live games, but that’s not exactly true. You may not be able to see your opponent’s body language playing online, but you can definitely still deduce information from their behavior.
Think about what information you do get from opponents in online games. Most obviously, you get betting amounts. At the speed online poker moves, this is actually incredibly useful information. In a lot of ways this kind of data can be more reliable than physical poker tells.
Say you have an opponent you’ve been at a table with for an hour. You’ve played dozens of hands against them and have noticed some patterns. They like to raise 3x the big blind in bad position and 4x the big blind in good position, and they very rarely limp in unless they are on the button. They tend to fold low draws pre-flop you’d guess, because you never see them get caught chasing.
One hand, you notice them uncharacteristically limp in from good position. Once there’s a 5x raise back to them they fold. A likely assumption to be made from this based on their typical behavior is that they had a high suited straight draw. J/10 suited maybe? Q/K suited? It’s unlikely they would have backed down so easily if they had the nut straight draw at A/K, so you can deduce 3-5 likely hands that they had from this behavior.
That didn’t give you much advantage at the time because they folded. You do, however, understand more about that player’s behavior. Maybe that will let you dodge a disaster when they limp in next time and catch a J/10/10 on the flop?
Minor Information, Major Advantage
In an incomplete information game like poker, little bits of information and likely assumptions can add up to a big edge at the table.
Let’s imagine that you have an opponent who you haven’t quite gotten a read on. They’ve been hanging on calling several times and haven’t yet raised or bet themselves. The flop comes 5/9/Q with suits scattered. They keep calling and playing very passively.
The turn comes a J. Suddenly, the player is much more engaged in the hand and responds to your bet with an instant raise – previously they had been considering each check carefully for several seconds. When you call their raise, the river comes a second Q. You check to the raiser, and they hammer a massive bet at you.
So what do they have? From their behavior, there’s one rather likely situation – they carried a 10/K into the flop. This explains why they wanted to hang around for as cheap as possible until their J dropped on the turn. They still had a live draw and an over card. Since the table draw is a gutshot, they know that they have drawn to the nut straight, and they’re hoping that they caught someone with the lower straight draw.
This is definitely not a sure thing. They could potentially have a busted gutshot draw with a 6/7 or something, and they’ve chosen to pretend that they have the nut straight to scare you off. Most people aren’t brilliant actors under pressure, however, so deciding whether they are trying to mislead you is a far simpler proposition than attempting to guess their random cards offhand.
One more thing about this example – they’ve been representing hitting the nut straight. You can put that hypothesis to the test! A second queen dropped on the river. If they have hit the nut straight, they’ll know that someone who had two pair going into the river – queens over X – will just have hit a full house on the river. That beats their straight.
If you come back over the top and they falter, that’s more evidence that they were on that straight draw. You may even be able to represent a late full house aggressively and scare them away altogether even.
Thinking Strategy
Like anything in poker, there’s a difference between understanding tells and applying tells. It takes practice to make the observations necessary to draw valuable information from tells, and even more practice to establish the discipline to know when and when not to act on likely assumptions about another player’s behavior.
Start to put your skills to the test. As you watch the behaviors of your opponents you’ll get better and better at it. You don’t need a poker club or casino to go to… you can start working on playing off of player behavior on Sweep It Poker today for free! See how your opponents react to different situations, and start to think about why when their behavior changes.
Stay tuned for more deep dives. Keep practicing your ability to read people as you’re out there thinking poker!
In the short time since the platform’s launch, Gala Film has already released some incredibly exciting content that addresses some of the most relevant topics in the Web3 world.
David Bianchi’s gritty sci-fi series, RZR, explored the possibilities and pitfalls of neurally implanted computers in a dystopian world of surveillance and black market tech intrigue. RZR actress Mena Suvari even received a Primetime EMMY® nomination for her performance, marking a first for web3 entertainment.
Following such an amazing platform debut series, we know you’re hungry for more cutting edge video content that gives you more. Now we have entered the “Ghosts of Ruin” era.
It’s finally out! Episode 1 of Ghosts of Ruin is live and free to watch!
The visually stunning and action-packed anime adventure explores the future of gaming, into the not-so-distant future where it’s all about neural reality gaming that letsplayers actually feel the action.
Follow the experience of Lee, a young classic gamer who wins a massively hyped contest to become the 100th player in the Tournament of Ruin, taking his place among a lineup of the most famous neural reality gamers in the world.
As you watch each full-length episode, you’ll find yourself asking the questions seething under the surface of the smooth and polished series:
Is this where we’re headed?
Can they show Lee the ropes in time to win?
What are the creators of “Ruin” trying to hide?
What happened to Lee’s predecessor?
Beyond Watching
Mystery Boxes and Expansions
When you watch new episodes of Ghosts of Ruin, you’ll also receive special Mystery Box rewards with chances to win! Piece together Shards to unlock access to Expansions, exclusive additional content that will take you deeper into the world of the show.
Dying to unlock all the content? You can purchase additional premium Mystery Boxes for only $3.99 each (special 50% off launch pricing) in the Gala Film store.
When you’re ready to truly own part of the action, collect NFT Moments to unlock regular $FILM rewards based on the success and viewership of the content.
Each Moment Pack contains a single NFT Moment (Bronze, Silver or Golden) from the show. Simply own a Moment to start collecting daily POPCORN! Rewards. Following the official launch of $FILM, POPCORN! will be convertible to $FILM, which will be tradable in the GalaChain ecosystem and beyond.
If you’re looking to fully maximize your reward potential while powering the decentralized world of film, running a Theater Node is for you. Once you’ve purchased a license, your node will run in the background of your computer through the Gala Node software, putting your excess computing power to work and delivering Gala Film content directly to viewers in exchange for your $FILM rewards.
Get a Theater Node license here Watch the first two episodes of Ghosts of Ruin now and be prepared for a new episode each Friday!
When you’re living in an endless time loop, trying to save the world from a destruction that already happened at the hands of the now ruthless superheroes that used to look out for you, picking the right weapons is always important.
In an ironic twist of justice, the chief weapons used by the Resistance against the power-crazed super villains are their own powers turned against them. With the help of the robot Bartender and a complicated Juice extraction/injection system, each mission gives you a chance to power up with certain powers collected from the dead bodies of previously slain superheroes. The whole process is pretty unpredictable, but what have you got to lose?
“It’s better than the old method. That one used a suppository.”
-The Bartender
Every vial of Juice results in a single new superpower for the round when you visit the Juice Injector in the bar. You’ll get your pick–One of three powers, unless you use a Reroll, then you’ll get three new random choices.
Powers 101
Skill will only get you so far when the baddies start swarming. That’s why it’s crucial to select powers that will continually enhance your ability to smash and bash greater numbers of enemies.
The most important powers are those that enhance your primary abilities of Jump, Dash and Attack.
You can hold one power per round within each of those primary abilities. For example, Xeno Cycle is a Dash power that transforms you into a motorcycle form that speeds through enemies to cause immense damage as you run them down. Fire Jump is of course a Jump power that shoots flames from your feet, allowing you to jetpack around and burn enemies on the ground. Ghost Jump lets you teleport upward and hover for a time.
You’ll notice that each of the powers listed above are part of a different family. You’ll almost always get more from your combined powers by stacking new powers from the same families, but as you play more, you’ll also start to notice interesting ways in which different power families can work together in deadly combos.
Power Families
Fire
Ice
Shock
Xeno
Ghost
Force
At the bar’s Upgrade Station, you’ll often find upgrades that enhance various stats based on which power families you’re running in that round. You can buy those upgrades for Credits, which you’ll collect during the round.
Once you’ve injected a primary power from a particular family, you’ll start to see more specialized power upgrades that will work together with the powers you’ve already collected. In the example above, Feast is a Xeno ability that lets you permanently gain health when you kill 7 enemies within 5 seconds. WIth Xeno abilities, such massacres are simpler than they seem.
You’ll also have opportunities to grab powers that enhance your proficiency with certain types of weapons by attaching super powers to them. For example, Burning Shot will inflict Burn on targets of your Precision Weapons like pistols and certain rifles.
Experiment and Find Your Power Groove
There are ideal strategies for every one of the endless power combos you’ll come across in the game. If you’re having a hard time in a round, always ask yourself if it’s due to a poor combination of powers or simply falling short on finding the right style of play for those powers. And when you have an easy time, always remember the combination of power upgrades that got you there, as well as the way you played.
Playing Alone?
Keep in mind that you’ll need to rely on different strategic choices when you’re playing alone or with other players. When you’ve got a full team of 3 hunters, do your best to complement the upgrade choices of your teammates. When it’s you alone versus all the bad guys, just go for the combination that will help you kill the most bad guys as fast as possible!
The bottom line when it comes to Superior powers is that there’s always something unique and exciting to play around with every round. You’ll continually find unique new ways to maximize your score and kill more enemies, especially as you grind up your Skill tree and increase your Infamy level!
Play Superior in Early Access
There are two ways to get into Early Access gameplay now on Gala Games:
Pick up an Early Access Pass – Holding one of these handy tokens in your GalaChain Inventory will allow you to play with any of the 5 characters currently available in Early Access, including 2 characters that aren’t yet available as Primes (Renegade and Specialist). NOTE: Bridge your Early Access Pass to GalaChain to unlock access to the characters.
Hello all you pilots out there, and welcome back to the Spider Tanks Showcase!
In this edition, we’re diving into a newer tank body in the arena, but one that offers some things no other body can. This mighty body forgoes the legs of most of its competition for a smooth ride over a more traditional tank drive system.
That’s right. This week, we’re talking about Tracks. Tracks is a retro special, sporting an antique track design that was popular on the Canadian subcontinent in the 15th century of Earth’s ancient past. This tank proves why such time-tested designs were popular, as it’s highly efficient and capable of amazing bursts of power when piloted by a skilled technician.
Tracks is big. Not Titan big, but pretty dang big. Usually, Energy is strictly a function of size – not in the case of Tracks. Tracks has the single highest Energy gain of any tank body out there, meaning you can use more abilities more often.
Like the Nomad, Santa’s Sleigh or Snoop’s Bumpin Lowrider, Tracks is a directional drive body. This means that it can move on impulse forward and backward but not side to side. You’ll have to adapt to this driving style if you’re not used to it, but the key is to stay in motion at all times if possible. It’ll take a while to accelerate from a stop, and you can’t turn while not moving. Keep agile and keep turning so that you can react quickly.
The Charger: Tracks/Carver
Remember how we said you get more energy than anyone else using Tracks? This combo takes full advantage of that. A Carver requires you to be up close… not a usual choice for a massive tank. With Tracks’ burst ability thanks to its energy though, you can cover a surprising amount of ground fast to chop down the competition.
Speed Boosters cost very little Energy, and with a high level Tracks you can theoretically use them pretty much whenever you need if you’re conservative with your Energy when you don’t need. Throw in a Repair Drone for another low-cost ability to keep you running smooth and you can use more abilities during the match than anyone else.
Opponents will think they’ve got your speed and reach down, then you kick on the afterburners. Make sure that you’re well repaired when you attack and choose your window well. Once you go sprinting after an enemy you’ll be a sitting duck if you turn around, so make sure they end as pieces and not you.
Mobile Triage: Tracks/Repair Artillery
While Tracks’ consistent Energy and toughness are huge assets, for many pilots the drive style of Tracks will often be a disadvantage. We can minimize that liability though by staying on the periphery of the fight when possible, and artillery makes that more possible.
With this, you’ll be playing support most often. You’ll still have the massive Energy gain to scramble and reposition if you need, but you can stay moving on the outside of the conflict, ensuring that your team stays healed and supported.
With Tracks large amount of Energy, Repair Zone could come into play as well here. Usually this ability is only useful in very few situations due to its high cost, but with Tracks you could lay down a repair zone every 20 seconds or so, allowing you to heal both team members at once.
The Burster: Tracks/Bouncer
This combo accepts that Tracks won’t be the fastest around, but it’s a much more traditional way to make a hard-hitting tank that has the chance to put out big bursts of damage when needed.
Bouncer can absolutely tear up an opposing team if you get them at the right time, and Tracks’ ability to utilize excessive amounts of Speed Boosters plays a key role here. With Tracks you can afford to be on full Energy most of the match, which means you can always be ready to make a sprint.
With this combo, you’ll want to get in and unleash your bouncies – then get out and bide your time until your next attack. Don’t boost as soon as you start your approach and give away your position. You want to save that booster until the last possible moment so that you can still use some of it to escape and prepare for your next pass. This opens up your allies to come in and clean up the mess or set you up for another run.
On Track to Victory
Tracks may be a blast from the past, but it has a lot of modern relevance in today’s arena. Don’t be turned off by the directional drive system without hopping in the pilot seat and giving this one a try… it can make big plays happen once you get used to its tendencies!
That’s all for us this week, but we’ll return next week for another Spider Tanks Showcase!
Have a body, weapon, abilities, map or game mode you’d like us to cover that we haven’t gotten to yet? Let us know on Discord and we’ll buckle up and get it ready!
When the outbreak began, billions of peoples’ stories changed drastically overnight. Only a small percentage survived. Some survivors would go on to become heroes of this new world, creating order from chaos and rebuilding from the ruins of the old world.
Tomorrow, the story of a new hero begins. An original character is coming to The Walking Dead: Empires Store – say hello to Eleonore!
Once upon a time, Eleonore was a journalist, chasing leads and finding meaning in the stories of others. Now, she uses those keen instincts and inquisitive nature to navigate the dangers of this world to survive. Your empire is young. Heroes with tenacity like Eleonore can help you grow strong.
Eleonore Sale Details
The Eleonore sale starts on Friday, August 16th at 7am PT. All rarities will be available in this sale.
The sale will continue until the supply has run out, or the card is removed to prepare for new Hero Cards.
All Eleonore Hero Cards will fulfill directly to GalaChain and will be immediately available to use within the game.
Eleonore’s a hardened survivor who wants to regain the sense of purpose she had in her old life. Building your empire could be that purpose.
Build the Future
This weekend starts the Build the Future event. Have you scavenged enough resources to climb to the top of the leaderboard?
Grow Your Empire
An empire isn’t built alone. You need heroes you can trust to fight like their lives depended on it. Eleonore is ready to do more than just survive. She’s ready to help your empire become the beacon the new world needs.
