Bitcoin Forum

Have you ever heard the term “poker face”?
In poker, you don’t learn it in one day, it comes with time, discipline, and a lot of situations where your heart is racing but your face stays calm (like “I'm doing great ;D”)
That’s why I believe that lying to a real poker player in everyday life is usually a bad idea. They can notice the things most people ignore (I would call them micro-movements).
So, what’s the first thing you look at when trying to read a player?

Before interpreting a facial expression (for example a blink), you need to know what is normal for that particular player when he is relaxed and not under pressure, otherwise you wouldnt know if a specific behaviour is a hint for the strength of his hand or not.

Never jump to conclusions from a single microexpression ("The player looked at his chips, his hand must be weak") ... Thats only valid if looking away from chips is his normal behavior ... which in fact can only be telled if you know how he behaves in normal situations.

Knowing players that good is very difficult. What helps is to start the first minutes of the game by studying the behaviour of other players.

The first thing for me, is observing their normal behavior before the game, studying every little detail, how they behave when relaxed.

Now, under tension, are there any changes? The smiles, facial expressions, hand movements and the likes.

Those little details matters a lot in detecting a poker face, with this I believe it could go a long way in discipline and discernment of one's behavior from the normal.

If you ask me, I will say the first thing to look at when you are reading a player is their eyes. No matter how professional or coordinated someone try to look, their eyes are usually hard to control for example when you see that a player tries to look away fast when you raise bet or they stare too hard trying to act confident it can be a sign that they are either nervous or bluffing. But it is not just eye alone, you watch how it match with their hands and breathing too. Although I’m also aware of some players who use tricks with sunglasses to hide their eyes.

As for the poker face, it is not something you pick up quickly, it is something that requires time, discipline and plenty moments of disguise in that your heart can be pounding but your face will still be looking same like someone that is chilling. But even at that, just know that you can still be busted because real poker players have been trained to have sharp eyes for spotting lies through both macro and micro movements.

I don't think you can easily spot whether they are lying or not since it's a part of the poker strategy. Once they notice you that you are observing, I am sure they can also use it to lie to you.
Behavior and facial expression—these days they usually use them to lie. So it's impossible that you could spot that they are lying.
Unless your opponents are newbies. You can easily use them to bluff and to lie or spot them that they are lying.
For pro players you can't do that; it won't be easy to spot them.

Trying to picture about what could be his next move, read his emotions and also check around if his games are mostly going well as expected by reading him psychologically, though the ultimate purpose of doing this was to have a clue about what to expect from him, but that doesn't give the accurate situation to what might be his actual move at last, but we try to know what transpired even as we are playing with other players.

I'm looking for betting tendencies and frequency. Are they opening a lot, are they showing down good hands on those opens, are they bluffing and what bet sizing are they frequenting when playing great hands vs bluffs. Sometimes it's good to call down an aggressive opponent with a mediocre hand once you have learned a little on how they're playing.

since, i almost always play online, i try to read their username :D

The first thing we need to observe in a poker player is their body language and micro expressions. Professional poker players are already well "trained" to identify these small signs that less experienced players often miss... subtle changes in posture, gestures, brief facial expressions of surprise, fear, or excitement and confidence... sometimes it's difficult to hide this.
Of course, sometimes this can also be a bluff, so it's not enough to just know the signs; you need to identify whether they are something natural or "forced" to insinuate something to opponents that is not actually the reality.

Anyway... I've already said in another topic that poker is not an easy game, that it involves a lot of statistics and study, and with this "human" aspect it becomes even more difficult.

That needs much experience to look and understand the situation in poker. I am not sure if I can identify it the first time. But face will be something that I will look and check if he is lying or not. But that is difficult because if they are a pro poker player, they can hide it from others. Knowing players needs time and observation for some time. But we can do that in our daily lives by watching how people act so we can get some clues or info. It will helpful to us in poker because at least we have something that we can use to identify.