So, what is the best ‘poker face’? Traditionally the term is associated with the blank, emotionless, neutral look, giving nothing away at all. However, recent research suggests this may not be the best look to adopt if you really want to confuse your opponents! In addition, while the majority of us believe we are good at detecting lies there is plenty of research that suggests most of us are basically inept at working out that we are being fibbed at. So what clues can you use to detect that your opponents are having you on and is it really possible to tell when somebody is lying?

  • Trusting looks
    Recent research suggests that the best face to adopt if you want to confuse your opponent is a trustworthy, open look. The traditionally neutral, blank face or the closed untrustworthy look doesn’t cut the mustard at all when you’re trying to out bluff the opposition. The main finding in the research highlighted that a smiling, open and trustworthy face led opposing players to take longer over decisions and make poorer ones. The report’s authors believe that a fairly basic human response is the root cause of this response. When faced with a visage that appears trustworthy we almost automatically make the assumption that it indicates someone who is unlikely to bluff — this response is so deeply ingrained that it is extremely hard to resist!

  • Muddled thinking
    Our inability to detect lies has been well documented. Despite believing that we can spot a liar, most studies show that even seasoned professionals — like the police and intelligence forces – can only manage around 50% of the time to detect a lie. That’s exactly the same odds as chance; which is just a little worrying! In fact our assumptions about liars tend to get in the way of the facts. We believe, in general, that those telling fibs will look away, hide their face or avoid eye contact. This seems to be completely the wrong way round — a liar will instinctively try to hold your eye contact — all part of the deceit — and again try to establish a sense of trust.

  • Facial readings
    So, how can you tell if the open, happy, smiling Cheshire cat of a player opposite really is about to pull off a big nasty old bluff? The smile itself is one visual clue — a false smile will normally be slightly lopsided — our facial muscles are weaker on one side or the other and this is more apparent when we attempt to fake emotion. In addition, recent findings suggest that the way we comprehend abstract concepts such as number can also provide a hidden clue to what our opponents’ cards have in store for us. These findings suggest that a lower number creates a response in which our eyes dip to the left, higher numbers one in which we raise them to the right. The higher or lower the position of the eye, the higher or lower the number. Researchers were able to accurately guess the number that the volunteers in the study were looking at from these responses. Sadly the response can only be read in 500 milliseconds — which without some elaborate machinery is very difficult to do! It’s also unclear if this applies to people from cultures where writing and numbers are organised from right to left!

Unfortunately much of this research has been conducted prior to the boom in internet poker games — which leaves players having to deal with the status quo — until, that is, somebody researches how to spot an untrustworthy user name!

This article was written by a guest author. Would you like to, submit a guest blog post?