Www.poker.com and being poker faced.
Category: Poker
There are a great many poker players on sites like www.poker.com these days who instinctively remain as stony faced and motionless as possible when they are involved in a big pot.
This is mainly for the purpose of not letting their opponent read something from their expressions or posture. One pro player, Phil Laak, A.K.A "Unabomber" is even well known for tightening his hooded top up around his head so nothing of his face is visible whatsoever.
I am sure this is effective at www.poker.com but perhaps it is more constructive to see your demeanour not as a chance for your opponent to gain a correct read on you, but as a chance for you to project a false one to them.
When attempting to give off subtle signals such as these it is important not to go too far. If you are very obviously trying to say somthing with your betting patterns or body language, your opponent may pick up on this and get a better picture of how strong or not strong your hand is causing your plan to backfire.
So keep it very careful, if they don’t pick up on the signal because it is too subtle, you have lost nothing in trying. Different people will find different things work well for them, but personally I like to leave careful hints to paint a different picture to how strong my hand really is.
If you place your chips in the pot with confidence, your opponent may assume you are attempting to disguise weakness and be more inclined to call, so try doing this when you are strong perhaps, see if you get the result you wanted.
It is important I feel, to be aware of these social aspects when playing live poker as opposed to online poker at sites such as poker.com. Play around with a few things and see if you can throw your opponents reads off line, you might find the results surprising.
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