A large disadvantage to playing poker in person, at a brick-and-mortar casino, is all of the distractions that are present to the player when he/she is trying to concentrate on their opponents and pick up on tells. Within one blink of an eye, your chance to pick up on an expression that your opponent did not want you to see can pass.

Fortunate for us online players, we do not have to deal with any of the classic confusion of normal poker. Even though you are not face to face with your opposition, it is much easier to tell what is going on in the minds of your opponents. Since the only constantly changing variable is the cards and your opponent, subtle signs and patterns are far simpler to pick up on if you know what you are looking for. These small tells are often overlooked by most online players, but they can let you know much more then you may have previously thought.

Pre-made. Fast Decisions.
Commonly, while playing online you will encounter an opponent who will use the checkboxes in the casino software such as "Fold", "Check/Fold", "Call Air", and "Raise All". You can catch on to this quickly, since as soon as you make your move the opponent will almost instantly respond with another move. Below we will discuss a few generalities, which while they may not hold true all the time, they will be pretty accurate for most people.

When people pre-select the "check/fold" option, they do not have anything and would like to see some more free cards, however if you bet then they will fold. It will also be a good idea to keep in mind what type of a player you are dealing with (aggressive, solid, passive, etc), and use this information to create a much clearer image of the mindset of your opponent.

If the opponent decides to use the pre-selected "raise all" checkbox, then there are two different possibilities as to what is going on. They will either have an absolutely awesome hand, intending to call it all the way to the river, or they are ultra aggressive and are making a move to scare you from the pot. Logically, you would at that point want to refer to your player notes and see whether or not this player is a particularly aggressive player or a conservative player. Based on that information you will immediately know whether to call them or fold.

Delayed Decisions.
When playing online you will notice that during some hands your opponent may sit and pause, trying to decide what to do. If you are playing a player who you have seen make quite a few mistakes, and seems to be new, then you can almost always count out him/her having a good hand. Most beginners to intermediate players will be too excited at the likelihood of winning a pot to wait any longer then they absolutely have to. Following this logic, if they (a beginner or intermediate player) pause significantly before their next move they do not have much of a hand, especially when the pause is followed by a check.

Although this is true for beginner players, an upper-intermediate or expert player will try to purposely switch up the response time (which is what you should be doing) between moves in order to keep you guessing as to what they actually have. A strong warning sign would be if you were playing a tricky' opponent and they follow up a long pause with a bet. In that situation you must be very careful, and consider folding unless you are holding a hand with some card strength.

An additional point that needs to be mentioned is that you are playing online, and therefore you will encounter someone with a slow dial-up connection which may be the reason behind consistent delays in decision making.