Gettin a leg up
By: Joe Navarro with Marvin Karlins

This is a question I ask attendees at the various poker seminars and training camps I conduct every year. The answer is important, because once you know the most honest part of an individual’s body, that’s where you’ll want to look to pick up the most accurate read on what your opponent is holding. The problem is that few attendees know the right answer; in fact, unless they are familiar with Read ‘em and Reap, they almost always respond incorrectly and, thus, they ignore the part of a person’s anatomy that gives significant, uncensored information about his true card strength.

The correct answer to the question: “What is the most honest part of your body?” is… your feet!

That’s right: Your feet win the honesty award hands, uh, feet down every time. The feet are truly remarkable and truthful in the information they convey. Unfortunately, when it comes to reading body language, most poker players start at the top (face) of their opponent(s) and work their way down, in spite of the fact that the face is the one feature of the body that is most often used to bluff and conceal true sentiments. My approach is the exact opposite: I begin with the feet and move up from there. This is because when it comes to the honesty of a person’s responses, the degree of truthfulness decreases as we move from the soles of our feet to the top of our head. Thus, our feet are the most honest part of our body, and our face is the most deceptive.

When you think about it, there’s good reason for the deceitful nature of our facial expressions. We lie with our face because that’s what we’ve been taught to do since early childhood. “Don’t make that face!” our parents growl when we honestly react to Aunt Wilma’s treacherous meat loaf. “At least look happy when your cousins stop by,” they add, and you learn how to force a smile. Mom and Dad are, in essence, telling us to hide, conceal, deceive, lie with our face… so we tend to get pretty good at it. So good, in fact, that when we put on a happy face at the poker table, we might look like we’ve got the mortal, stone-cold nuts when, in reality, we’ve got a sevendeuce off-suit and are in deep crapola.

Think about it; if we couldn’t control our facial expressions, why would the term “poker face” have any meaning?

Happy Feet at the Poker Table

So I don’t look for happy faces when I’m in a poker game, I look for what I call “happy feet” — feet that wiggle and/or bounce with joy at the table. Our feet are the most honest part of our body because we have never been taught to control them; and even if we had, control would be difficult to achieve, because the behavior is a limbic brain (emotional brain) response that has been hardwired into our nervous system during an evolutionary period that spans millions of years.

A while back, I was watching a World Poker Tour final table on television. I see a guy dealt a flush and his feet are going wild! They are wiggling and bouncing like the feet of a child who’s just learned he’s going to Disney World. His face is stoic, his demeanor above the table is calm, but down near the floor there’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on! I’m pointing at the TV set and urging the other players to fold. Too bad they can’t hear me. Two players call his bets to the river and lose to his made flush

This player has learned how to put on his best poker face. Obviously, he has a long way to go when it comes to putting on his best poker feet. Fortunately for him, his opponents hadn’t read Read ‘em and Reap or this column… and, like most players, they have spent a lifetime ignoring threefourths of the human body — from the chest on down — and paying no attention to what critical tells can be found there.

When players suddenly (and this is key) have happy feet, it’s because they have great hands. It’s a high-confidence tell, a signal that the player is strong and opponents should beware. Even the best professional players are not immune to giving away information with their feet. Case in point: A while back I was watching Daniel Negreanu play, and his feet had been flat on the ground as the hand developed. Suddenly, on the turn, he realized he had the winning hand (not even the river card could save his opponent, which he wisely read — Daniel reads people extremely well), and his feet began to bounce with exuberance. A few months later I met up with Negreanu in Nassau; I pointed out his behavior to him, and in my ex-Gman style said, “Daniel, knock it off!” Negreanu, ever the gentleman, acknowledged that he was unaware of his happy feet tell. Most poker players are oblivious to what their feet are doing. This can be hazardous to their financial health, because the feet can convey a lot of valuable information to the astute opponent who is trained to watch for it.

How Can A Player Spot Happy Feet Under a Poker Table?

When I speak with poker players about the importance of happy feet, they are usually skeptical.

“You can’t see your opponent’s feet!” they argue.

That argument is not totally accurate. You can usually see the feet of the players on either side of you, and even if you can’t, there’s an easy way to determine if an opponent has happy feet. You need to look at his shirt and/or his shoulders: If his feet are wiggling or bouncing, his shirt and shoulders will be vibrating or moving up and down. These are not grossly exaggerated movements; in fact, they are relatively subtle. But if you are watching for them, focused on what to look for, they are discernable.

Try this little demonstration for yourself. Sit down in front of a fulllength mirror and begin wiggling or bouncing your feet. What’s going to happen is you’ll start to see your shirt and/or shoulders move. If you’re not watching for it, you might miss it; but again, if you’re willing to take the time and effort to look for the behavior, you’ll be able to detect it.

When my poker seminar students suddenly see the vibrating shirt and shoulders of a player with happy feet, this is usually when the light bulb goes off. They realize they’ve been missing an important tell at the tables and are quick to take advantage of it. Less than a month after the end of the first Camp Hellmuth in Las Vegas, I received six e-mails from enrollees who reported significant gains in their bankrolls just by spotting happy feet in their opponents. Another participant from the camp saved himself from putting even more into a huge pot when he decided not to call an opponent whose happy feet gave away the strength of his hand. The key is noting everyone’s foot behavior at the table and watching for sudden changes as a result of what is happening as the game and betting action unfolds.

A word of caution: Like all tells, happy feet must be taken in context to determine if they represent a true tell or just excess nervous behavior. For example, if a person has naturally jittery legs (a kind of restless-leg syndrome at the poker table), then it might be hard to distinguish happy feet from his normal nervous energy. If the rate of intensity of jiggling increased, however, particularly right after a player saw his cards, I might view that as a potential signal that the strength of his hand had just taken a turn for the better.

In next month’s column I’d like to conclude my discussion of foot tells with some additional observations about feet and leg behaviors that help us assess the intentions and card strength of our opponents. Until then, try spotting happy feet — and their associated behaviors — at the tables. I believe you’ll take a positive step in your development as a poker player.

Joe Navarro served as a Special Agent with the FBI for 25 years. You can read his book “Phil Hellmuth Presents Read ‘em and Reap” (HarperCollins) available at all major online and brick and mortar booksellers. Joe welcomes readers’ questions at his navarropoker.com website. Dr. Marvin Karlins holds a PhD in Psychology from Princeton University and is currently Professor of Management at the University of South Florida’s School of Business Administration. An avid poker player, Professor Karlins enjoys answering inquiries at mkarlins@aol.com