Body Language Is Also Subtle, and Poker Players Learn This When playing a game of cards, people may inadvertently express their confidence, or lack thereof, in the cards they have been dealt. It could be a frown that says, “I hate these cards.” It could be a sudden intense stare at other players that says, “I think I have a good hand.”. There are three big facets to success at the poker table. The first is statistical knowledge - knowing the odds that you can make your hand, the odds that your opponent can make any pair by the river, that sort of thing. The Easy Smile: The stare-down is a commonly used tactic at the poker table. If the hand is down to you and one other player, and you want to know what that player has, try staring them down. If they look back at you and they are sitting on a good hand, they will often offer a smile slightly after making eye-contact. Body language is the type of thing that you’ll get infinitely better at reading as time goes on. This could be said about most any skill in poker, but picking up on tells is truly something that requires actual game play experience to learn and improve upon. Body language comes, to me, in two different varieties.

1. Reading Body Language At The Poker Table
2. Body Language At The Poker Table

To become a pro poker player, you need to master your body language, identify common poker player traits, and learn how to spot tells. Poker tells are common, irrespective of whether you play at a tournament or cash game table.

The professionals know how to hide tells, the amateurs fall into the trap. You may be extremely skilled at the game but if you are using the wrong body language or are not being able to spot tells, you are losing out on a lot of profit.

Remember – Body language is essential for poker players!

Yes, nonverbal science has a role to play in poker. It adds a whole new dimension.

Tells are generally very subtle, yet once you master them, you will be able to pick up cues to judge poker player traits and the opponent’s game. Remember the general rule – in poker, weaknesses mean strength, strengths mean weaknesses. Poker is a sport of deception and players will try to fake a tell. Just keep a constant eye on the player’s moves but make sure they don’t get to know that they are under your observation.

Many popular poker players around the globe have shared tips and guidelines for reading tells. We’ve collected the various inputs and put them together to help you decode the common traits of players and improve your profits in the game.

• The glance at the chips – Now, this is something most players do unconsciously. As soon as the cards are dealt, if a player takes a quick look at the chips and then looks away, it means that he/she probably wants to bet. The next unconscious tell is to look at the opponent’s chips.
• The glance at the cards – This is one of the common poker player traits of beginners where the player takes a brief look at the cards in hand. For instance, if the flop has 3 cards of clubs and the player takes a glance at the cards, chances that he/she has a flush are low. This is because the suit is usually not noticed in an off-suit hand. If there is a suited hand, they will remember the suit of their cards. Therefore, it is safe to guess that they have at most one card of clubs.
• The breathing pattern: How a player breathes is very important. And this is not an intentional tell. If you are close to the player, you will be able to easily monitor the breathing. Shallow breathing or restricted breathing to avoid breathing loudly means that the player has a weak hand.
• The truth about nervousness: Nervousness is often decoded as the sign of a weak hand. But a lot of times, nervousness is just an act or imitation. You will see that there is a bit of an exaggeration because, in reality, the player is holding strong cards.
• The fake reluctance: If a player is uncertain about the bet or shows reluctance, the player has a strong hand. If they had a weak hand, they would do everything possible to hide this. On signs of such a poker tell, you must fold unless you hold a very strong hand.
• The lean back:Most professional players know that they are being watched and so, they sometimes try to fake their actions. One of the classic tells is – the lean-back. When a player has a strong hand, they lean back from the table and sit with their arms crossed. They are trying to hint that they don’t have much interest and are non-threatening but the truth is that they probably have the best cards.
• The size of the eyes: This one is a general human tendency. As soon as you see good cards, your eyes get bigger. You must watch the opponents’ eyes to notice who likes what they just saw. The eye muscles unintentionally retract the eyelids and there’s a dilation in the pupils. If that’s what you notice, know that he/she has a good hand.
• The repeat: Apart from nonverbal tells, there are also some verbal poker player traits that you can focus on. These are also equally valuable. For example, if you ask your opponent, “Did you just get a flush?” and their response is, “You think I just hit a flush?”, he/she most probably did get one. If you use verbal tells in the right manner, you can fish for useful information. The action of repeating your question as a response to you is a sign that they don’t wish to lie and they are sitting on a strong hand.
• The easy smile: Another very interesting tactic used on the poker table is a stare-down. If it is just you and another player and you are trying to judge what that player has, try to give a stare. If his/her response to your eye-contact is a slight smile, you can guess that they have a good hand. But be wise. There is a lot of difference between a genuine smile and a fake smile. A genuine smile will bring back the corners of the mouth along with the corners of the eyes. A fake smile will reflect weakness with only the mouth smiling.
• The dejected sigh: This one is extremely common. You would have seen it many times by now. Some players immediately show frustration or say ‘Dammit’ after seeing their cards. They are just trying to tell you that they have pathetic cards and are weak. However, you must go back to the general rule – weaknesses mean strength and when someone is attempting to blatantly show weakness, it means he/she is strong.

Spotting a tell is not easy, especially for new players. It takes time to master the act and you need to go slow. Every player is different and so are their actions. Player A might genuinely give reactions while Player B might be a master at hiding weaknesses. Go slow to get into the habit of understanding tells.

Notice one person at a time and develop your analysis on their actions – how they bluff, how they act when playing on a good hand, their body language when they fold, the meaning of high bets, etc. When you have a hang of understanding the tells of this one player, move on to the next one and over time, you will be able to notice the common tells on your table.

Check out: Poker Superstitions Popular on the Poker Table

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If you decide to disconnect from virtual play for a while to play in alive setting, you need to think about how body language and physical appearanceare going to affect your performance. In a real-life setting, poker players tryto read other players by looking at the way they are dressed, the way they holdthemselves, and their facial expressions, so you need to be careful not to givethe wrong impression (unless you want to give them false tells, of course, butthat’s a risky strategy).

I’m not saying you have to wear a big cowboy hat like those guys in poker movies,but you will need to think carefully about how you dress and how you’representing yourself to the other players at the table.

What to wear

The number one tip would probably be this: don’t try too hard! If you showup at a live poker game wearing a tuxedo like a James Bond wannabe, people arenot going to take you seriously. This isn’t a movie! Lots of poker playersfavor clothes that cover their faces, such as hoodies, hats, and sunglasses, asthese can help to minimize visible physical tells. But, conversely, they canalso draw attention to you, perhaps mark you out as someone who lacks theexperience to control their physical tells and might, in specificcontexts, be perceived as a sign of weakness.

Another potential downside to covering your face with hoods and glasses isthat you may be preventing yourself from using your facial expressions to givefalse tells. As we mentioned earlier, this can be a risky strategy, but ifyou’re an experienced live-action player and confident in your ability tomanipulate your opponents’ thinking with false physical tells, then ditch thesunglasses and hoodies.

Reading Body Language At The Poker Table

You need to think carefully about all of these variables, where you’replaying, who you’re playing with, and what you feel comfortable wearing whenplanning your outfit for a live poker game. As it’s essential to stay relaxedand calm during a poker session, choosing clothes that you feel mostcomfortable in is probably the best approach.

Body language

The other factor in this equation is body language beyond the facial expressions mentioned above. It’s common to hear statements such as “80% of all communication is non-verbal,” and, while there is some debate on the exact figures, what is doubtlessly true is that non-verbal communication, i.e., body language, is incredibly important, especially in the context of a live-action poker game.

Strong = weak

Body Language At The Poker Table

A very general rule to follow is this: strong body language means the playerhas a weak hand, and weak or disinterested body language means the player has astrong hand. For instance, if a player puts on a brash and confident air whenmaking bets by raising their voice, slamming chips about, and being veryemphatic in their movements, then they may well be trying to overcompensate forweak cards. If, on the other hand, a player sighs dejectedly, folds their arms,and leans back from the table during play, they may well be sitting on a greathand.

These are very general rules of thumb, of course, and you’ll also need toobserve other player’s behavior over time, looking for patterns and trying toconstruct some frame of reference. Try and gauge what their normal behavior isand watch out for deviations from it, then you will start to get a moredefinite sense of how to interpret their body language.

For example: what is their regular breathing pattern? Can you notice theirbreath becoming heavier or shallower? Do they like to maintain eye contact, ordo they prefer to look away? Is their general body language open, or closed?When you have established some reference points, you will notice when theirbehavior deviates from this norm, which may well indicate that the player isholding some good cards. Be observant of and responsive to changes in youropponents’ body language, and you could find yourself improving your game.

In short, poker is a complicated game, and successful players have to beable to process large amounts of information from several channels to win. Youropponents’ physical appearance is one of those channels. Tune in to it.