Tales of Intention, Part I
Here’s a poker scenario I am sure you all can identify with. It’s midway through a major No Limit Hold’em tournament and you’ve been sitting for well over an hour waiting for a hand – any hand worth betting. The last six times you’ve peered down at your first two cards, at no time did they total double figures. A face card? Forget it; the last time you saw a jack was in the trunk of your car. A 7-2 suited is starting to look attractive. Then it happens! You’re under the gun, you check your hole cards, and American Airlines (A-A) is awaiting your takeoff instructions. You know you’re going to bet, but how much? Limping in is a possibility, but that might encourage other players to enter the pot cheaply… and aces don’t play so well in multi-way pots. You could raise, but that might give away the strength of your hand – particularly since you’re the first to act – and might discourage too many other players from giving you action. The best strategy would be to limp in, let someone make the raise, and then – depending on the number of other players still in the pot – either call the raise or come over the top of the raiser. The problem is: How can you know if someone else will make that allimportant raise?
The answer: by observing your opponents for a class of nonverbal behaviors – known as intention cues – that provide advance indication of what they intend to do when it’s their turn to act at the table. In this (and next month’s) column, I will be revealing what these intention cues are and how you can use them to your advantage.
Nasal wing dilation (“nose flare”)
Very early in my career as an FBI agent, I learned there were certain nonverbal tells to look for if you wanted to know what a person was intending to do before he did it. This was particularly helpful if the person was planning to do you bodily harm! A little advance notice can go a long way in avoiding serious injury, or even death. One such nonverbal tell involved an individual’s nose.
If you take your fingers and place them on either side of your nose, you can trace the contour of your nostrils. If you then sniffle, you can feel your nostrils expand. This is called a nose flare, or nasal wing dilation. Nose flaring is a potent indicator that a person intends to do something physical. As the individual prepares to act, he will oxygenate, which causes the nose to expand. In my profession, if I see a suspect looking down (an act of concealment) and his nose is flaring, there’s a high probability he’s preparing to hit me. Knowing this information allows me to take appropriate defensive measures and lowers my risk of being sucker-punched.
What about nasal wing dilation at the poker table? Do we see it? Yes. Are we in physical danger? Not likely, unless it comes in the midst of an argument between players. At the poker table, nose flare is a tell of intention or engagement. It is letting us know that the player plans to get involved in the hand. This, of course, can be valuable information if you are thinking of coming into the pot and would like to know if anyone else intends to join you. I’ve been at a table where the last player to act was waiting for his turn to come around, and the whole time his nose was dilated. He couldn’t wait to get his chips into the center of the table! Further, this player never limped in; he always came in with a raise. If, in our opening example, you were the first player to act and were aware of this opponent’s nasal wing dilation, it might very well help you decide whether you should call or raise. Remember: Nose flaring = action to follow.
The torso shift
There are other tells of intention that can also help you determine what players intend to do… before they do it. You should always be looking for signs of engagement versus disengagement in your opponents. What you will usually see is the player’s torso leaning toward the table when he’s going to engage in play, and away from the table when he doesn’t plan to get involved. One way to look at this behavior is in terms of energy. To expend the energy it takes to be in the forward/ready position actually taxes the body, which would much rather be relaxed and at ease. So when a person is in a relaxed position, leaning left or right, and suddenly shifts into the forward position, I see that as an engagement tell, as an intention to get into the action.
The hands, feet, and even the face are also good sources of intention cues. We’ll visit these next month. In the meantime, watch for flaring nostrils, both at the table and in the parking lot… it will help keep you in the money and out of trouble in the years to come.
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
