Hiding in the Open
Those of you familiar with my Read ‘em and Reap will know that I emphasize concealing and not revealing as a way to preserve your bankroll. If you feel that you are weak in detecting the nonverbals of others, you should remember that if you can conceal your own signals, you will still have an advantage over most opponents.
Once in a while I’ll read a blog or comment in which the author advocates that tells aren’t important in poker or that most people don’t look for them in the first place. This may be true in a home game where you’re playing for lunch money, but at the live casino felt, in the biggest of tournaments, people will be doing their best to read your body language. I truly believe that if you aren’t making any effort to conceal your tells, you might as well give your money away. Without taking action, your opponents are going to come around, read you like a book, and send you to the rail.
Whether you want to admit it or not, my friends and co-teachers at the
So what is the best thing to do when we are up against those who have mastered the ability to evaluate and act upon our tells? The answer is to hide in the open.
A few months ago I was at Foxwoods watching a high stakes table. At one of the tables were eight men and one woman. She was the chip leader. While most of the men chatted about, revealing a lot of tells and seemingly having a good time, she quietly sat there, sunglasses on, a baseball cap low on her forehead, listening to her iPod. Her hands and arms barely moved after she looked at her hole cards. Her moves were almost robotic, repeating them over and over. Her actions, in my opinion, translated to very effectively hiding in the open. I didn’t recognize her at first, but as I got closer I realized it was Vanessa Rousso, a well known and talented professional poker player. For hours she played in this fashion and although I’ve spent my career training myself to look for nonverbal signals, she revealed very little. After observing her for a period of time, I’m convinced that nobody else at that table could read her and it showed in the chip counts.
Her secret is actually no secret at all. Many professionals have learned to conceal and not reveal by making themselves almost invisible at the table. Our brains come prepared to hide in the open as a survival tool. The brain will orient towards any movement and/or sound, and will catalog behaviors that are new or different. That is why we tend to look at a TV screen when there is a lot of movement (at least that is what most men tell their girlfriends). This orientation reflex helps us to avoid danger and helps us to spot odd behaviors such as when someone is acting “crazy.” Any movement, even a subtle one, makes us take notice. Conversely, when we are around people who don’t move, we tend to ignore them or in poker, forget about them turning our sights towards other movement.
Our brains, in fact, get lazy and complacent when there is no movement around us. In a real life example, when soldiers in the field or SWAT operators freeze, even while near an armed combatant, they seemingly disappear.
So by taking this knowledge, you can, as Phil Hellmuth and others have done, use it to your advantage. You can make yourself psychologically disappear at the table, by moving as little as possible, not being erratic, and minimizing what you say. I know that you’ve played against players who behaved this way and there is little information you can recall about them. I know this because intelligence officers are taught to behave the same way. To hide in the open by being, as we call, a “low observable.”
To begin to use this powerful technique, you are going to have to first rely on the knowledge that it does work, and secondly you are going to have to change your behaviors at the table. That means restraining your movements and talking less while playing. I know that might be hard but, as with everything I’ve explained, the more you do to practice these behaviors, the better the results.
Here are some additional recommendations which you can research more in my book Read ‘em and Reap:
Develop a robotic (automatic, repetitive) approach to handling your cards and wagers that is consistent and conceals your nonverbal behaviors. You want to become so repetitive that you fly “under the radar” of human interest. You want to become the forgotten one at the table.
You want people to grow tired of looking at you because there’s nothing to pick up from your body. Also, by adhering to a rigid, repetitive table behavior you go a long way toward eliminating tells that might occur otherwise.
When you sit down at the table, take time to get adjusted in your seat. You will want to assume a posture, sitting position and distance from the table that are easy and comfortable to maintain for long periods of time.
When you receive your hole cards, you will want to look at them the same way every time. I recommend you look at your cards with your head low. This gives away less information.
Once you observe your cards, don’t look up; continue to look down. Try to retain the same facial expression regardless of the cards you observe – the “poker face.” Also, try to look at your hole cards for the same amount of time each time a hand is dealt.
I prefer players look at their cards out of sequence. Many pros disagree with me on this, but my reasoning is sound. Better to have one set of eyes on you than eight sets of eyes. For if you accidentally reveal one glaring tell, the entire table is now aware.
When you have finished looking at your hole cards, cup your hands together, one atop the other, and bring them up to your mouth with thumbs under the chin. Maintaining this position will make it difficult for an opponent to observe tells of the face and neck.
Use this perching position to analyze others and think about your next move. Keep your verbal announcements short and consistent over the length of your play. Always move your chips into the pot in the same manner with the simple statement of “call,” “raise,” “reraise,” or “all in.” Once you have moved your chips to the pot, immediately return to your standard hands-cupped-in-front-of-mouth position.
Don’t make extraneous movements in any part of your body while you are involved in a hand. If you need to shift in your seat, scratch your neck, yawn, lick your lips, or move about and stretch to get more comfortable, do so between hands or during hands you aren’t playing.
Remain as non-communicative as possible at the table, both during and between hands. Do not engage in conversation or eye contact with other players unless absolutely necessary. Remember, your verbal and eye behavior can provide an opponent with valuable tells. Unfortunately, I’m telling you to become as antisocial as possible at the table.
So that’s it. You may not be as much fun while playing but, frankly, you’re playing poker to make money. It’s work, not just a game. Poker is about preserving your resources, not being a fun guy everyone can read. Even if you aren’t being social, you can still have fun at the table. After all, since when is raking in your non-concealing opponent’s chips having a bad time?
