How To Make A Good Poker Face

Do you wear your emotions on your sleeve? Can people tell if you’re happy or sad instantly? Are you tired of that impacting your hand in poker?

  1. How To Make A Good Poker Face Masks
  2. How To Make A Good Poker Facetime
  3. How To Make A Good Poker Face? - Live Poker - CardsChat™

I have a good poker face. Never played poker, ironicslly. BUT while I can keep my face blank, the rest of my body goes crazy. My vein in my neck pounds depending on the situation so much that it's visible, and I blush (also depending on the situation). But I know if I played poker I would have no reason to blush or have adrenaline so I would br.

We all know that succeeding at poker doesn’t just come down to strategy or luck. It comes down to your presence and your personality. In other words, it comes down to having a killer poker face.

Although some people are born with a poker face, many people have to practice building theirs over time.

  1. Jan 05, 2019 You can’t have a good poker face if you don’t thoroughly understand poker rules. Spend some time on researching and observing before you join in on a game. This may mean showing up at poker night- and merely watching others gamble. It may mean heading over to Youtube and watching tutorials.
  2. Mar 31, 2016 While you're playing poker, the basic rule of thumb is to not ever register your feelings overtly. The only thing that might give you away is the look on your face, so you have to show as little emotion on your face as you can.

Let’s get into how you can develop yours!

Your Invitation to the Best Online Pokies in Australia

Like a punt on the slot machines?

Our top rated slots for October 2019 are the smash-hit online pokie sites: Ruby Fortune and Jackpot City Casino.

These sites include some impressive matched bonuses – up to $750 and $1600 respectively! With the potential for some seriously big wins, here’s your chance to get a piece of the action:

Master The Rules

You can’t have a good poker face if you don’t thoroughly understand poker rules. Spend some time on researching and observing before you join in on a game.

This may mean showing up at poker night- and merely watching others gamble. It may mean heading over to Youtube and watching tutorials.

You don’t want to be in the middle of the game asking for clarification. That’s essentially a surefire way to ruin your odds instantly.

How To Make A Good Poker Face

Once you have a grasp on the essentials, practice playing with friends first before heading to the casino. If that’s not an option, play a low-stakes game. You don’t want to lose all your money without knowing what you’re doing.

Take Up Meditation

More How To Make A Good Poker Face videos

Stress often dominates our emotions. And when we’re at the tables and the stakes are high, we’re going to feel, well, stressed!

That said, learning how to manage this stress is one of the first steps. The less stressed you feel, the less you have to worry about your expressions, right!

Consider picking up the worthwhile habit of meditation. Meditation yields numerous, incredible benefits including:

  • mindfulness
  • clarity and sharpness
  • stress relief
  • decreased anxiety and depression
  • self-esteem
  • positive thinking

These benefits undoubtedly boost your mental and physical health. However, they can also dramatically improve your poker game!

Meditation doesn’t need to be complicated. Start by devoting five minutes a day. Set yourself in a quiet room and sit comfortably or lie down.

You can practice deep breathing on your own. This means breathing in through your chest and out through your mouth. Inhale slowly and exhale slowly. When extraneous thoughts arise, practice diverting back to your breath.

Not a fan of doing it yourself? Consider checking out a guided meditation script or app. They can help orient your thoughts and bodily reactions.

Relax The Face

Your face is the obvious giveaway to your emotions. It’s what can make or break your poker game. Through meditation, you can learn how to relax your mind and thoughts.

However, you’ll also want to be aware of your facial expressions. Any clue can sabotage your hand. After all, skilled poker players pick up nonverbal cues.

Practice getting comfortable with hiding your reaction. This means relaxing your face muscles in a way that seems natural.

Control The Eyes

They say the eyes are the gateways to the soul. In poker, they can be the gateway to determining your bluff.

Ideally, you want to maintain eye contact with your opponents through the game. Eye contact conveys a sense of control and power. It shows that you feel confident about what you’re holding.

If direct eye contact is awkward for you, focus between their eyes on the bridge of their nose. This averts some of the ‘directness,’ but it still shows alertness.

Finally, don’t forget to blink! Staring can jeopardize your poker face. It may hint that you’re not really paying attention. Or, it may reveal a sense of concern about your cards.

Good poker players blink naturally. Excessiveness shows anxious energy. Staring too hard shows stiffness, and it comes across as unnatural.

Really not sure how to manage the eyes? Don’t overlook the power of sunglasses. That way, you don’t have to worry about what signs you may be giving away.

Mind The Posture

We carry tension and stress in our bodies. Undoubtedly, poker can be stressful, but you want to demonstrate that you’re calm and collected.

Before you even begin playing, loosen up your body with a few stretches. Stretch out your arms and legs. Roll your neck around.

Make

As you sit down at the table, engage in a brief, head-to-toe analysis. Remove your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Drop the shoulders. Unclench your hands and feet.

Finally, check your posture. Slumping around looks sloppy. Likewise, sitting up too uptight can show that you’re “trying too hard.” Keep your posture natural.

Practice Your Voice

How To Make A Good Poker Face Masks

Our tone reveals so much about our emotional state. When we’re anxious, we tend to babble, as if the words can’t come out fast enough. When we’re happy, we tend to speak louder.

How to make a good poker facetime

Before you speak, clear your mind and take a full breath. Visualize moving your mind into a neutral place.

When you do speak, stay objective. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. This is not the time to tell your life story!

Be mindful of any stuttering or stumbling when you’re anxious. This could reveal insecurity or nervousness. Instead, focus on providing short, concise answers (one-word statements are perfectly acceptable).

Not comfortable speaking? Nod your head to indicate yes or no.

Check Your Nervous Energy

Most of us have nervous twitches. We often fidget around without even realizing it. However, they can be a huge red flag in showing our emotions.

Some nervous twitches to consider:

  • Playing with hair
  • Cracking knuckles
  • Tapping fingers
  • Playing with clothing
  • Rubbing or scratching the skin

You want to keep your hands free and calm. Hide any movements that could show tension. For example, if you must release stress, squeeze your hands together under the table.

Finally, mind your grip. Gripping cards tightly can reveal a sense of anxiety. And what’s more of an obvious sign than blaring, white knuckles?

Learn The Art of Bluffing

A poker face doesn’t always mean complete stillness. It means being able to hide what’s going on. Sometimes, that means tracking and bluffing your opponents.

Bluffing takes time and practice. Expert poker players spend several years mastering this craft. Don’t be too hard on yourself if it feels awkward and forced in the beginning.

With that in mind, despite Hollywood depictions, bluffing doesn’t mean taking huge, dramatic bluffs during every opportunity you have. Instead, bluffing comes in various degrees. And some players don’t bluff at all!

You should always understand the stakes. Some poker games have ‘no limit,’ which means there can be a tremendous risk. Friendlier poker games, on the other hand, can simply result in you just losing the game.

Successful bluffing means nobody knows you are bluffing. In this case, your opponents have folded before the last bet. You win the pot by default.

However, if there is a showdown, your bluffing will be revealed. This isn’t inherently a problem, but if you get in the habit of it, people will quickly catch on.

How To Make A Good Poker Facetime

You should assess how many other players are bluffing. You have a better chance at succeeding with fewer opponents. Bluffing 1-2 opponents will always be better than trying to trick 3+ people.

Observe The Bluffing around You

Now that you know about your own poker face and body language, you can learn to spot it in other people.

First, watch the body language. Look for any holding of breath or hand movements. Look for signs of nervous twitching or anxious energy.

Stay tuned of ‘extreme’ emotions. For example, if someone is acting “very weak,” they may be “very strong” and vice versa.

How To Make A Good Poker Face? - Live Poker - CardsChat™

Finally, watch how other players manage their chips. Research shows that players who place their chips further away from them have weaker hands. Therefore, they may be bluffing.

If a player places his chips closer to him, that may be a sign that he “values” his cards and assumes money is coming his way.

Ask For Feedback

Are you playing with good friends? Don’t shy away from asking from feedback. After the game, ask for an honest interpretation of your poker face.

What did you do well? What obvious signs did you miss? Were you able to throw off anybody successfully?

Remember that practice makes perfect. Your friends are the ones who are actually seeking your poker face (or lack thereof). If you want to improve, consider their feedback.

Final Thoughts on Maintaining Your Poker Face

Learning and maintaining a poker face can take your poker game to the next level. With effort, dedication, and practice, you’ll be well on your way towards winning more games- and landing more money!

Are you interested in learning more about profitable poker tips? Check out our Texas Hold ‘Em guide today.

Good

What is Poker Face?

Before I begin to tell the different ways to maintain a poker face, you must know, what is a poker face first. Poker Face is nothing but face having no expressions or a face which doesn’t reveal anything that the opponents can take advantage off. By having a poker face the opponents will have a hard time reading us. By doing so, the opponents will have no clue of what you have, i.e, either a good hand or a bad hand. Also, it is important to maintain a poker face when you bluff, to pretend you really have a good hand that might defeat an opponent, but in reality, it is the opposite.

Now, remember that the poker face is only applicable when playing offline tournaments or games, i.e When certain players play the game together on a table. But, when poker is played online where no other players are present, poker face is out of the question and doesn’t matter. You have the freedom to shout at the top of your lungs or laugh since no other player is present at your place.

Coming back to the topic, having a good Poker face becomes crucial at some stages and it is really wise to learn the different ways for maintaining a good poker face. Let’s get straight into the different ways to maintain a poker face.

Different ways to maintain a Poker Face are as follows:

1. Positive Body Language

Body language becomes very important when poker is played since the other players watch you closely how you play and if you, as a player give away anything regarding your cards through your body language, to the other players, then it is going to be a problem for you to win that hand.

Now there are many ways in order to maintain a neutral Body Language and one of them is by not looking at the opponents. What generally happens is, when a player looks at the opponent’s face, they tend to give away the hand by becoming a bit nervous. Now, if you can stay calm even when watching an opponent, then I’m not stopping you to look other players face. This can actually create a pressure to the opponent thinking that you have a good hand and you might end up winning that hand.

Now, the other method for maintaining a positive body language is not to move around too much, and also it is very important for you to keep both of your hands placed on the table, and not giving up anything. Make the opponents think hard for your cards instead of giving the hand by yourself.

2. Cover your face

Another way to maintain the poker face is to cover your face. There are different ways players can cover their face. One of them is by covering your eyes through Sun Glasses. Eyes become one of the main factors for maintaining a poker face since you can express a lot through your eyes and covering your eyes can help you prevent from showing any emotions to the opponents. Now, once you play a lot of hands you’ll be able to control your emotions more frequently and covering your eyes isn’t required. But, if your still a beginner then it is best for you to wear sunglasses and cover your face.

Now the other option to cover your face is by covering your face by a cloth or by wearing a pullover so that you can cover your face. This will help you hide your emotions and will make the opponents guess your hand. Again, this becomes optional once you play a lot of hands and get used to controlling your emotions easily.

3. Don’t talk with other players

Now, this is optional for some players who are really good at manipulating at talking. The players who are good at manipulating make the opponents think exactly what you want them to think and trick them. Talking can help you immensely if know exactly what to talk and when to talk. But, please keep in mind this can backfire in a big way. Some players know exactly what you’re doing and will not even listen to what you’re talking.

In this video, Daniel Negreanu talks and tries to distract Antonio Esfandiari, but it backfires to him. Thankfully, luck was on Daniel’s side and he won that hand anyway, but you might not be as lucky as him always and might have lost that hand.

Now keep in mind, Poker is all in the mind. It’s completely related to how you think and act at that moment. So, for players who are not comfortable talking, do not to talk to other players who try to get to your emotions during crux moments. Just don’t reply to them, keep silent and don’t even look at other players who are talking. This way you won’t give away anything, and the opponent usually gives up gaining nothing.

4. Control Your Emotions

Emotion plays a huge role in maintaining a poker a face. Research suggests that you tend to lose more than win when you lose control of your emotions. It is always better not to play poker when you’re not feeling yourself.

It generally becomes hard to maintain a poker face when you lose control of your emotions. You tend to give out more clues to your opponents with what cards you might have. This is pretty common while playing poker. Most of the players show emotions when they lose hands which they shouldn’t have lost to. But, it is important that for the next hand, you become yourself again by not thinking of the previous hand you lost. This is where it separates Professional players to the amateurs.

Professional Players know how to keep in check of their emotions. This is one of the reasons for their success. So, make sure you take control of your emotions.

5. Have Fun While Playing

At the end of the day, if you don’t enjoy playing poker, you tend to show more emotions and it will backfire you. So, make sure you enjoy the game. Be a part of every hand you play. Whether you lose a hand or win a hand doesn’t matter.

It is more important for you to enjoy the hands that you lost. Because we usually enjoy our winning hands anyways. But, nobody enjoys losing. But it is important to take note that losing is a part of the game. But a tournament is not about losing 1 hand. It is how you win in the long run. So, have fun while playing.

These were some of the ways you can maintain a poker face. Hope this guide helps!

Popular FAQ’s

What is Poker Face?

Poker face is a term used for maintaining a straight face in poker to not to give away anything to the opponent.

Is maintaining Poker Face important?

Yes, maintaining a poker face is very important while playing offline tournaments in a casino or other table games. It becomes a vital role in not revealing your cards to the opponents.

Is maintaining poker face difficult?

It all depends on how you control your emotions at the table. If you are calm and don't overreact in certain situations, you'll be able to maintain a poker face.

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5/5 (1 Review)

I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.

Related Posts: