What Does a Pause Before Betting Mean-Strong or Weak?

[wall_st]

I think this post has some answers

[Assani Fisher]

they have a flush if they pause for 3 seconds more than their usual time frame, quads if 7 seconds...I havn't figured out any others yet.

[PokerPadawan]

Doesn't anyone ever see this from good players with weak hands? I see it often as a fake tell to induce their opponent to check behind on the river with hands that can would like a showdown but can't call a river bet (in NL).

[Alobar]

Its strong, and like danza said, its [censored] annoying.

You can totally tell lots of times that its not some crappy internet connection or hes getting water or whatever, and that its deliberate. Guy plays the same speed for 10 hands in a row and then all of a sudden when the river card helps him hes gotta pause for a million years before he raises. Gimmie a break

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
Doesn't anyone ever see this from good players with weak hands? I see it often as a fake tell to induce their opponent to check behind on the river with hands that can would like a showdown but can't call a river bet (in NL).

[/ QUOTE ]

thats another good one, I see that all the time. Guy is check/calling the whole way and then a scary river card comes and all of a sudden he has to pause for a few seconds like hes trying to decide whether to bet. I take it as a green light to value bet the hell out of him.

I guess that means I should edit my "it means strong" post, but I think its a completely different situation

[Ali shmali]

In limit and after the flop, it generally means strength. This is assuming the player is at their comp thinking about their play and not just waiting for their current youtube vid to finish running. You will more often have difficult decisions when you have strong hands. IE. should i slowplay, should i check raise, if i bet will he call, uurrg, i should bet... bet. You rarely have a player think this long and then decide he should bluff. Those decisions are always easy and the ones that aren't are very rare.

[Dire]

In limit it's always strength and it's annoying as hell. So many players do it habitually every time they hit a draw. I'm not sure why I'm complaining, it's a valuable tell - but I get annoyed waiting for them to bet. Some of them are soooo slow taking like 10 seconds.

[MyTurn2Raise]

it's irrelevant

I'm 12-tabling

[Equal]

Why I pause REALLY long it just means I've timed out cuz I was in the john.

[kewl_cph]

Somewhat related, I almost always find that pausing before checking is weakness. I usually bet when I encounter this and it works almost all the time.