It is a common
misconception that the game of poker is all about bluffing,
gambling and sheer luck. Of course, there are elements of these
within the game. But poker is a game of people, played with cards.
At times it is psychological warfare, played out on a field of
green baize with chips as ammunition. The truly great players are
not just lucky gamblers. Instead, they appear to have near psychic
abilities to detect what cards the other players at the table have.
An excellent player has the ability to be able to manipulate the
other players into making decisions that favour him. It is having
the ability to understand and interpret instinctual human behaviour
which is more of a pre-requisite to playing good poker than being
dealt a pair of Aces every hand. This article will not equip the
reader with the skills necessary to play the game. It is an
exploration of how being able to interpret
non verbal communication (NVC) can give poker players an enormous advantage over
the rest of the table.
Any behavioural pattern that a player exhibits which can tip you off to what they hold is called a ‘tell’. Even the most novice player is aware of this – hence the archetypal ‘poker face’. After all, when you have the best hand and are all set to rake in a nice big pot of chips, you aren’t exactly going to grin from ear to ear and look chuffed about it until your opponents have called your bet. Otherwise they would know you had the best hand and would fold theirs in an instant, which would lose you their money. Your explicit and conscious NVC is kept to an absolute minimum at the poker table. It is therefore the art and the challenge of the game to be perceptive and intuitive enough to be able to pick up on small unconscious mannerisms and peculiarities in people. In Communication Studies, these mannerisms and pecularities fall into one or more of the following categories: eye contact, proxemics, orientation, facial expression, gesture, paralanguage, posture and dress.
There have been many excellent books and articles written on the subject of ‘tells’. Indeed, the most common ones are such universal knowledge now that exceedingly cunning players deliberately drop a few ‘false tells’ in during the course of the game as a ruse. You have to be as cunning as a fox!
Facial Expressions..
Perhaps the most common ‘tell’ known is the “weak means strong, strong means weak” one. For example, with “weak means strong”, a player with the best hand may show disappointment – by sighing, pulling a face or slumping slightly in his chair. Some players exhibiting this may also bet weakly – trying to demonstrate that they don’t have confidence in their hand (but actually trying to make it cheap enough for other players to be tempted to call). This player will not want to do anything to discourage other players from contributing to the pot (how many chips are available to be won at any given point). The player will therefore be pleasant to you if you speak to him, and announce his bet in a quiet to moderate tone. In my opinion, the most dangerous of these signs is for a player to audibly sigh as he is betting or calling a bet. I have found that it always means he has a better hand than me.
Posture and tension...
Conversely, a player who is trying to represent a good hand and bluff at the pot in an attempt to win it, will demonstrate some quite aggressive body language. He will almost certainly keep a very straight face, often with very tense features. Jaw muscles are a good giveaway as they tend to tremble slightly as the player keeps their mouth firmly shut. The way this player will bet will usually be very quickly, as if no thought needed to go into it. They will often move their chips quite forcefully into the pot – often announcing the amount bet quite loudly. The amount bet is often quite large or the absolute maximum allowed. Since it seems that so many players are aware of these danger signs, it is interesting that players still do them. This is because they are unconscious – but therefore quite subtle to detect.
Poker can be a very boring game at times and it is tempting to ‘zone out’ for minutes at a time whilst waiting for a playable hand. However, not being involved in a hand is a perfect opportunity to be observant of the non-verbal communication which takes place with the other players.
Archetypes and exceptions...
When I sit down at a table for the first time I try to make a mental note of each player seated with me and try to ‘classify’ them into types. When I am observing somebody I will note if they appear to be a confident or a nervous type of a player. Are they verbose and extrovert or do they keep to themselves and not engage their neighbours in casual chat? The person who has barely said a word all night and then asks “How much to me to call?” has got the winning hand, no doubt about it. He has received an unaccustomed burst of confidence and simply cannot help showing it.
Nervous players are notoriously ‘tight’ – meaning that they only play premium hands and can be bullied (and bluffed) relatively easily. A player who is losing money very often begins to play rashly in an effort to recoup their losses (in poker terminology, this is “going on tilt”). This happens more with the egotistical and raucous players at the table and can be heaven sent as they will generally tend to call bets even when they know they are almost certainly beaten, as a last act of desperate optimism.
More conservative personalities tend to ‘tighten up’ even more when they are losing money – which is also an advantage as they simply will not risk their chips unless they know for certain that they will win the pot. And in poker, quite often you just have to take a chance.
The disconsolate player who looks gloomily into his empty wallet or announces he won’t be throwing any more money away at this game is basically announcing to the more wily members of the table “I can be bullied and bluffed off of anything other than the most premium hand. Take my chips Guys!!” But of course he doesn’t realise he has just exposed his weakness. Losing money is a painful process and it takes a lot of strength of will to not let it bother you. There is a powerful psychology to poker because it tickles the most visceral parts of one’s personality. No one likes to lose – especially when there is money involved – and it is difficult to remain dispassionate and controlled. Recognising the player who is beginning to feel defeated and negative enables one to ‘stick the boot in’ to them as often as you can. It’s a brutal game!
Thoughts and deeds...
The way that a player stacks his chips is often thought to be a sign of what sort of a player they are. People who stack their chips in neat piles, according to value/colour may well be quite tight players, methodical and organised in their decision making. Players with one big haphazard stack of chips might be looser in their style of play and tend to bluff more. Players tend to fiddle with their chips a lot during a game – the noise of chips clacking together can be a bit like Chinese Water Torture at times. But chip fiddling can also be a tell. When a player is considering calling a bet but he feels he has the inferior hand, he may count his chips into piles and then restack them again thoughtfully. He just doesn’t want to let them go. Even if he does call, he can probably be pushed out of the pot with another big bet from his opponent. He’s not going to go through that reluctant process again. The player who calls the bet by swiftly counting out the amount with no sentimentality, expects to be getting them and some others back when he wins the hand.
Smoking is the number one pastime of the profligate gambler and provides a useful tool for the ‘tell spotter’. A fellow poker player once gave me a tip to watch the way that people smoke during a hand. A smoking player making a bluff will tend to take a big lungful of smoke but hold it in for longer and then exhale really slowly. This technique is often used by people, whether playing poker or not, as a relaxation technique hence its propensity to signify anxiety.
Sometimes it is useful to have some prior knowledge of how many players after you will be playing their hands. It is generally a good tactic to watch the other players as they get their cards dealt to them. Those that are smoking, drinking or eating will usually pause with this and free both hands instinctively as they are ready to play. If they continue to postpone their coffee/fag/sandwich whilst they are still in the hand this can be sign that they may well have you beat.
Watching people’s eye contact usually yields some common tells. Most players habitually don’t make eye contact with the other players during a hand, so it is worth watching for when they do and making a mental note of why they did it. For instance, did they stare directly at another player because they wanted him to call or because they were trying to be ‘aggressive’ with a bad hand? The way players look at the cards may also provide some valuable hints.
In Hold ‘Em Poker, players are dealt two cards each which they look at but keep face down on the table. A total of five cards are dealt face up on the table, which are ‘community cards’ – meaning that all the players can use them when making the best five card poker hand. When the community cards are dealt, a player that continues to look at them rather than at the other players is less likely to have made a good hand. It is almost as if he is willing those cards to change into something different. I tend to watch for the players who quickly glance at them and then either show disinterest and look away or look at the other players. This generally means that they have ‘connected’ with the cards in some way – usually a strong hand. Similarly, a player with a good hand may glance down at his chips and then at the chips of his opponents. This is almost certainly an unconscious gesture, as the player is trying to quickly work out how much he can extract from his table mates.
Hand gestures are another unconscious yet common tell. Play moves clockwise around the table and each player must wait his turn to act (check, bet, call or fold). Some players who have no intention of playing will often make a tiny movement with their cards pushing them ever so slightly away from them, way before it is their turn to act. The player who has every intention of playing will generally keep at least one finger on his cards. This player may also be fingering his chips speculatively, or at least looking at them. When a player ‘checks’ (which is an option if there has been no betting during the hand) it is common practice to tap the table rather than verbally announce “Check”. Players do this in a variety of ways – with two fingers, with the flat of their hand, with a clenched fist or with the side of their hand. Sometimes, a deviation in a player’s particular checking mannerism can give a clue to what they are holding. For instance, a player holding a strong hand may ‘check’ in order to deviously keep people in the hand in the hope that someone else will bet with an inferior hand. If his check was a bit suspect (for instance, if he usually taps the table with his palm but this time he has just used two fingers) then I would advise playing on with extreme caution.
Body posture often changes according to the strength of a player’s hand. Small adjustments such as sitting up straighter, squaring shoulders or the tilting of the chin upward should set off some warning bells in the mind of the observant player. A sign worth watching for is the way a player is breathing – having a big hand and the prospect of winning (or losing) a big pot never fails to raise your pulse rate. This in turn elicits other physiological responses which we have no conscious control over such as shallower faster breaths, nasal flaring, pulsating veins in the temple or the neck (yes, really!) and the inevitable shaking hands as the system receives a massive burst of adrenalin. All the classic signs of anxiety and the ‘fight or flight’ response. I was once almost unable to stand after losing a massive pot (and consequently being knocked out of the game) because my legs were trembling so much and I could scarcely breathe. It seems illogical – it is after all just a game – but it affects you in the same way that riding a rollercoaster does. It is an addictive, rewarding, frustrating and challenging game.
All that has been mentioned has been a general overview but has hopefully served to illustrate that tuning in to unconscious non-verbal communication as well as having a good understanding of psychology, aids the poker player. Gambling (although I prefer to think of poker more as ‘strategic investment’!) is all about getting a small ‘edge’ (advantage) over the game. Because it is impossible to see what your opponents have in their hand, being able to glean any information that might help you in your decision making when playing against them gives you the edge. It doesn’t always work out that way and not every player exhibits the classic mannerisms and behavioural patterns. But without a doubt, the finest poker players of our time have succeeded because they have been skilled in ‘playing the player’, not the cards.
Any behavioural pattern that a player exhibits which can tip you off to what they hold is called a ‘tell’. Even the most novice player is aware of this – hence the archetypal ‘poker face’. After all, when you have the best hand and are all set to rake in a nice big pot of chips, you aren’t exactly going to grin from ear to ear and look chuffed about it until your opponents have called your bet. Otherwise they would know you had the best hand and would fold theirs in an instant, which would lose you their money. Your explicit and conscious NVC is kept to an absolute minimum at the poker table. It is therefore the art and the challenge of the game to be perceptive and intuitive enough to be able to pick up on small unconscious mannerisms and peculiarities in people. In Communication Studies, these mannerisms and pecularities fall into one or more of the following categories: eye contact, proxemics, orientation, facial expression, gesture, paralanguage, posture and dress.
There have been many excellent books and articles written on the subject of ‘tells’. Indeed, the most common ones are such universal knowledge now that exceedingly cunning players deliberately drop a few ‘false tells’ in during the course of the game as a ruse. You have to be as cunning as a fox!
Facial Expressions..
Perhaps the most common ‘tell’ known is the “weak means strong, strong means weak” one. For example, with “weak means strong”, a player with the best hand may show disappointment – by sighing, pulling a face or slumping slightly in his chair. Some players exhibiting this may also bet weakly – trying to demonstrate that they don’t have confidence in their hand (but actually trying to make it cheap enough for other players to be tempted to call). This player will not want to do anything to discourage other players from contributing to the pot (how many chips are available to be won at any given point). The player will therefore be pleasant to you if you speak to him, and announce his bet in a quiet to moderate tone. In my opinion, the most dangerous of these signs is for a player to audibly sigh as he is betting or calling a bet. I have found that it always means he has a better hand than me.
Posture and tension...
Conversely, a player who is trying to represent a good hand and bluff at the pot in an attempt to win it, will demonstrate some quite aggressive body language. He will almost certainly keep a very straight face, often with very tense features. Jaw muscles are a good giveaway as they tend to tremble slightly as the player keeps their mouth firmly shut. The way this player will bet will usually be very quickly, as if no thought needed to go into it. They will often move their chips quite forcefully into the pot – often announcing the amount bet quite loudly. The amount bet is often quite large or the absolute maximum allowed. Since it seems that so many players are aware of these danger signs, it is interesting that players still do them. This is because they are unconscious – but therefore quite subtle to detect.
Poker can be a very boring game at times and it is tempting to ‘zone out’ for minutes at a time whilst waiting for a playable hand. However, not being involved in a hand is a perfect opportunity to be observant of the non-verbal communication which takes place with the other players.
Archetypes and exceptions...
When I sit down at a table for the first time I try to make a mental note of each player seated with me and try to ‘classify’ them into types. When I am observing somebody I will note if they appear to be a confident or a nervous type of a player. Are they verbose and extrovert or do they keep to themselves and not engage their neighbours in casual chat? The person who has barely said a word all night and then asks “How much to me to call?” has got the winning hand, no doubt about it. He has received an unaccustomed burst of confidence and simply cannot help showing it.
Nervous players are notoriously ‘tight’ – meaning that they only play premium hands and can be bullied (and bluffed) relatively easily. A player who is losing money very often begins to play rashly in an effort to recoup their losses (in poker terminology, this is “going on tilt”). This happens more with the egotistical and raucous players at the table and can be heaven sent as they will generally tend to call bets even when they know they are almost certainly beaten, as a last act of desperate optimism.
More conservative personalities tend to ‘tighten up’ even more when they are losing money – which is also an advantage as they simply will not risk their chips unless they know for certain that they will win the pot. And in poker, quite often you just have to take a chance.
The disconsolate player who looks gloomily into his empty wallet or announces he won’t be throwing any more money away at this game is basically announcing to the more wily members of the table “I can be bullied and bluffed off of anything other than the most premium hand. Take my chips Guys!!” But of course he doesn’t realise he has just exposed his weakness. Losing money is a painful process and it takes a lot of strength of will to not let it bother you. There is a powerful psychology to poker because it tickles the most visceral parts of one’s personality. No one likes to lose – especially when there is money involved – and it is difficult to remain dispassionate and controlled. Recognising the player who is beginning to feel defeated and negative enables one to ‘stick the boot in’ to them as often as you can. It’s a brutal game!
Thoughts and deeds...
The way that a player stacks his chips is often thought to be a sign of what sort of a player they are. People who stack their chips in neat piles, according to value/colour may well be quite tight players, methodical and organised in their decision making. Players with one big haphazard stack of chips might be looser in their style of play and tend to bluff more. Players tend to fiddle with their chips a lot during a game – the noise of chips clacking together can be a bit like Chinese Water Torture at times. But chip fiddling can also be a tell. When a player is considering calling a bet but he feels he has the inferior hand, he may count his chips into piles and then restack them again thoughtfully. He just doesn’t want to let them go. Even if he does call, he can probably be pushed out of the pot with another big bet from his opponent. He’s not going to go through that reluctant process again. The player who calls the bet by swiftly counting out the amount with no sentimentality, expects to be getting them and some others back when he wins the hand.
Smoking is the number one pastime of the profligate gambler and provides a useful tool for the ‘tell spotter’. A fellow poker player once gave me a tip to watch the way that people smoke during a hand. A smoking player making a bluff will tend to take a big lungful of smoke but hold it in for longer and then exhale really slowly. This technique is often used by people, whether playing poker or not, as a relaxation technique hence its propensity to signify anxiety.
Sometimes it is useful to have some prior knowledge of how many players after you will be playing their hands. It is generally a good tactic to watch the other players as they get their cards dealt to them. Those that are smoking, drinking or eating will usually pause with this and free both hands instinctively as they are ready to play. If they continue to postpone their coffee/fag/sandwich whilst they are still in the hand this can be sign that they may well have you beat.
Watching people’s eye contact usually yields some common tells. Most players habitually don’t make eye contact with the other players during a hand, so it is worth watching for when they do and making a mental note of why they did it. For instance, did they stare directly at another player because they wanted him to call or because they were trying to be ‘aggressive’ with a bad hand? The way players look at the cards may also provide some valuable hints.
In Hold ‘Em Poker, players are dealt two cards each which they look at but keep face down on the table. A total of five cards are dealt face up on the table, which are ‘community cards’ – meaning that all the players can use them when making the best five card poker hand. When the community cards are dealt, a player that continues to look at them rather than at the other players is less likely to have made a good hand. It is almost as if he is willing those cards to change into something different. I tend to watch for the players who quickly glance at them and then either show disinterest and look away or look at the other players. This generally means that they have ‘connected’ with the cards in some way – usually a strong hand. Similarly, a player with a good hand may glance down at his chips and then at the chips of his opponents. This is almost certainly an unconscious gesture, as the player is trying to quickly work out how much he can extract from his table mates.
Hand gestures are another unconscious yet common tell. Play moves clockwise around the table and each player must wait his turn to act (check, bet, call or fold). Some players who have no intention of playing will often make a tiny movement with their cards pushing them ever so slightly away from them, way before it is their turn to act. The player who has every intention of playing will generally keep at least one finger on his cards. This player may also be fingering his chips speculatively, or at least looking at them. When a player ‘checks’ (which is an option if there has been no betting during the hand) it is common practice to tap the table rather than verbally announce “Check”. Players do this in a variety of ways – with two fingers, with the flat of their hand, with a clenched fist or with the side of their hand. Sometimes, a deviation in a player’s particular checking mannerism can give a clue to what they are holding. For instance, a player holding a strong hand may ‘check’ in order to deviously keep people in the hand in the hope that someone else will bet with an inferior hand. If his check was a bit suspect (for instance, if he usually taps the table with his palm but this time he has just used two fingers) then I would advise playing on with extreme caution.
Body posture often changes according to the strength of a player’s hand. Small adjustments such as sitting up straighter, squaring shoulders or the tilting of the chin upward should set off some warning bells in the mind of the observant player. A sign worth watching for is the way a player is breathing – having a big hand and the prospect of winning (or losing) a big pot never fails to raise your pulse rate. This in turn elicits other physiological responses which we have no conscious control over such as shallower faster breaths, nasal flaring, pulsating veins in the temple or the neck (yes, really!) and the inevitable shaking hands as the system receives a massive burst of adrenalin. All the classic signs of anxiety and the ‘fight or flight’ response. I was once almost unable to stand after losing a massive pot (and consequently being knocked out of the game) because my legs were trembling so much and I could scarcely breathe. It seems illogical – it is after all just a game – but it affects you in the same way that riding a rollercoaster does. It is an addictive, rewarding, frustrating and challenging game.
All that has been mentioned has been a general overview but has hopefully served to illustrate that tuning in to unconscious non-verbal communication as well as having a good understanding of psychology, aids the poker player. Gambling (although I prefer to think of poker more as ‘strategic investment’!) is all about getting a small ‘edge’ (advantage) over the game. Because it is impossible to see what your opponents have in their hand, being able to glean any information that might help you in your decision making when playing against them gives you the edge. It doesn’t always work out that way and not every player exhibits the classic mannerisms and behavioural patterns. But without a doubt, the finest poker players of our time have succeeded because they have been skilled in ‘playing the player’, not the cards.
NVC & Poker Tells
'Poker
– deception and perception'
by Linda Spencer
