Reliable Timing Reads and TimeMojo

Action time is just another piece of information about your opponents, no different than continuation bet percentage, or VPIP. Once you learn how to use one of these statistics, you can increase profitability, decrease mistakes and most importantly, give yourself the confidence to succeed.

The best place to start is with snap actions (less than 3 seconds to act). Snap actions are extremely reliable when making a time based read, because your opponent has to predetermine their action before they are given a chance to act. Predetermined actions help narrow our opponents hand range and allow us to make a slew of timing based reads.

Let’s take a look at a hand that was made possible using snap timing reads:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)

saw flop | saw showdown

SB ($20)
BB ($50)
UTG ($20)
MP ($51.75)
Hero (CO) ($50)
Button ($46.11)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7♠, 6♣
2 folds, Hero bets $1, Button calls $1, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.75) 7♦, 9♥, 2♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $1.75, Button calls $1.75, (1.78s)

My opponent is a weaker player who is likely playing one table. The first thing I noticed after continuation betting the flop is that he took slightly less than 2 seconds to call. This tells me that my opponent really wants to see the next card that comes, which usually indicates a draw. 

Turn: ($6.25) 3♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $4, Button calls $4 (1.89s)

With this information I decide to bet the turn again for value despite my relatively weak holding. My opponent calls again in slightly less than 2 seconds, which further strengthens our original read. 

River: ($14.25) A♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

When the river comes I am not completely thrilled to see the Ace, as any ace high flush draw now beats me. However, there are still a lot of draws in his range. If my opponent were to quickly bet when checked to, indicating an action predetermined on the turn, I would gladly call expecting to see a missed draw. If my opponent did hit the Ace, I would expect him to take some time to determine how much he wanted to bet, rather than quickly bet an arbitrary amount. 

Total pot: $14.25 | Rake: $0.64

Results below:
Button had 5♥, 3♥ (one pair, threes).
Hero had 7♠, 6♣ (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $13.61

The important concept to take away from this hand is that quick or predetermined actions can give us very reliable reads on our opponents. Having the information that our opponent snap called the flop gave us extra confidence in making a thin value bet on the turn. The snap turn call also gave us confidence in our river plan and whatever river timing our opponent used would help make our river decision easier.  

Quick actions by our opponents are almost always done for a specific reason and are great for developing accurate timing reads. Snap post flop actions are typically weak or drawy holdings as our opponents like to take time to determine how much value they want to get when they have an actual hand.

Some poker players just need a little extra confidence to take the next step in their game and using reliable timing reads can help them get there. I urge any poker player, novice or expert; to give TimeMojo a try and see how often snap actions can help narrow an opponent’s hand range. Good luck and thanks for reading.