Keeping a Poker Face

[goofball]

one time, i flopped the nuts and one of the other people in the hand got up and started dancing.

turns out he had flopped the nuts too. we just got to split the other poor suckers 5small then 5 big then 5 big bets, she flopped the second nuts. (KQTxx board)/

[cyorg]

Wear a mask. It works for me [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[fishfeet]

Here are a few things I try to do during a live game.

For me, Im a very high energy person most of the time... I move a lot, I play with chips, I talk.... thats jut my nature.
I make every attempt to be this way all the time. In a hand or not. I make sure I stick to my "list" of things that I do, and make a consious effort not to do anything else.
This helps keep them guessing on my body language.

Some people arent this way though. They might be a social person when not in a hand, but during a hand they sit there cold as ice and dont move unless they are putting chips in the pot.
I dont like this however, because if you do have a tell it will be more noticable because you arent moving.
Since Im always moving and doing various thing at all times, if I happen to do something out of the ordinary it should be a lot harder to pick up on.

As for betting tells, I always try to bet the same way. Think for a particular amount of time, grab my chips the same way, place them into the pot the same way, and put my hands back to my stack the same way. Just keep focused on doing everything the same way.

[Los Feliz Slim]

I perform, as much as I can, EXACTLY the same movements each time action is on me, in order, regardless of where I am in the hand. It's like a ritual. Once you've done it for an hour or so, it feels like home and is extremely calming. I keep my hands in exactly the same place, folded, unless I'm checking my cards pre-flop, betting, or folding. I don't move until I've decided what to do, at which time I manipulate my chips in another ritualized fashion.

[Bill C]

[ QUOTE ]
Try and avoid the tell I saw last night. Flop came 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and this old guy about 70 goes " Hot Damn!" He had pocket 8's.

[/ QUOTE ]

Try this: Look at your cards, and yel, "Hot damn!" Reach for your chips, but stop in mid reach. Look at your cards again, and then mustering up as much disgust as you can, say that you misread your cards and muck them.

Nobody'll bother looking at you for a long time. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I saw a thing about Gus Hanson on TV recently. He makes all kinds of faces, goes through contortions mutters to himself, saying things like "if he has THIS... or maybe he has that..." The effect is nobody has any idea what he might have.

bill