Poker is recognized as a game of skill, luck, and maintaining a constant blank expression. The cards in your hand determine the outcome of each round. Changing the outcome of a round is dependent on your ability to maintain a straight face.
Due to the competitive nature of one of the most popular card games, the habit of putting on a poker face has been around for almost 150 years.
Knowing and analyzing your opponents is critical to success at poker. Your opponents are aware of this and will be monitoring your expression and body language to attempt to make poker calls.
A tiny tick, little expression, or unintentional movement might reveal your hand, allowing the other players at the table to devise a strategy to beat you.’
The best professional poker players know how to keep a poker face. So how do the best poker players keep a poker face?
The most talented players are cool, calm, and collected.
Of course, knowing what’s at stake, this may be easier said than done but the best players do it anyways.
By deliberately keeping a calm temperament, players are less likely to react to situations that may be negative to their current hand.
Regardless of the cards dealt to the best players, they just simply retain their cool and remain in command of the situation.
Being able to accomplish this is a sort of a superpower since it implies that none of your opponents will know what your next move may be or what you’re thinking. It is crucial when keeping a poker face.
The best poker players are self aware
Most people are unaware that they have a tell. It happens instinctively in response to a good or terrible hand. Yet, the top players are aware of this, and you should be as well.
This takes a lot of experience outside of the poker table (in everyday life), and the pros don’t wait till they’re sitting at the poker table to accomplish it.
They are aware of extrinsic triggers such as when they receive good news from a friend or family member, or when a coworker criticizes you.
They take notice of the emotion it evokes in them as well as the bodily movement and facial expression that ensues.
Once they have knowledge of these triggers, they take steps to cancel out the physical reaction and facial expressions.
One can never control emotions so well that they are numb to everything (especially when money is involved) but they can make sure the disappointment or even happiness does not show on their faces.
You need Confidence to play poker and the best players have that
Maintaining eye contact and keeping a comfortable posture are signals of confidence.
This implies that even if you are aware that the odds are stacked against you, no one else has to be aware. Confidence helps keep a poker face and the most confident players as the best players.
Because of the ambiguity surrounding their holdings and the confidence on their faces, it causes some opponents on the table to take a more defensive strategy to the game in order to prevent them from potentially winning.
Simply because of this, some opponents may even decide to play poker in a way that does not coincide with their initial strategy. When this happens, the advantage goes to the confident player regardless of the kind of hand they were dealt.
Some avoid eye contact
When you develop self awareness like the pros have, you come to understand the things that you like and don’t like.
When you’re gazing directly at someone, it’s difficult to keep a blank facial expression, and it’s simple to get apprehensive or overconfident depending on the state of the game and the hand possessed.
The best poker gamblers choose a location on the table to concentrate their gaze and hold it there regardless of their hand. Some even go as far as wearing sunglasses in order to prevent eye contact.
Great players Maintain their Silence
Talking at the poker table merely offers your opponent more chances to make poker calls. Some of the best live poker players can get a read on how you might play depending on simple things like how you react to certain news or just your life in general.
As you chat, experienced players will notice variations in inflection, loudness, and pitch. After some time, someone will detect a tell connected with a winning or losing hand.
For example, poker great Daniel Negreanu is an expert at small conversation. He frequently shouts out his opponent’s hand, causing them to perform exactly what he desires.
Will Kassouf notoriously employed “speech play” to irritate his opponents during the 2016 WSOP Main Event. In several cases, his actions took them off guard.
The best poker players are exceptionally adept at maintaining a steady voice no matter their emotions. Others just choose to remain silent which is most likely the best alternative.
The Best players develop the best Poker Face through consistency
There is no singular poker face that works for everyone since there are so many different ways to present yourself at the table. Certain poker players, such as previous WSOP champions Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson, frequently wear sunglasses and hats.
They then sit stoically, frequently with their hands clenched in front of their faces, trying not to reveal anything. They resemble a statue. Others, like Daniel Negreanu, forego accessories in order to show themselves to the public.
They’ve learned to control their emotions, so attempting to interpret what’s going on in their heads is a guessing game. They have perfected the poker face.
These players know what works for them best because they worked very hard in and out of the poker tables to improve it.
Take Chris Ferguson for example. He would frequently practice his poker face in front of a mirror by constructing a movement routine. He would study things like how he’d reach for and set chips, where he’d keep his hands when they weren’t being utilized and so many other things.
Lastly, relying on friends may be the greatest method to enhance your poker face.
Request feedback from them on your behavior and how you portray yourself.
Use the information and put it to good use.
