Tells of Intention, Part III
When two people talk to each other, they normally speak toe to toe. If, however, one of the individuals turns his feet slightly away or repeatedly moves one foot in an outward direction (in an "L" formation with one foot towards you and one away from you), you can be assured he wants to take leave or wishes he were somewhere else. The person's torso may remain facing you out of social diligence, but the feet may more honostly reflect the limbic brain's need or desire to "escape." This type of foot behavior is an example of an intention cue. It is a nonverbal "tell" that can help you assess what a person is thinking and/or planning to do; information you can use to interact more effectively.
Do nonverbal intention cues show up at the poker table?
Yes.
Are they worth watching for?
Yes, again, because they help us gain advance knowledge of what our opponents plan to do… allowing us to play our hands more successfully. In the previous two columns, we discussed several important intention cues, including nasal wing dilation, torso/posture shifts, foot/hand/palm position and overprotection of cards. In this final column on the topic, we’re going to examine additional intention cues of the mouth and hands…along with some cautionary observations about using these nonverbals correctly.
The lip purse
One of the most interesting – and sometimes difficult to interpret – intention tells involves the pursing of the lips. Take a moment, if you would, and purse your own lips as if you were going to kiss someone. People purse their lips when they are in disagreement with something or someone. When someone talks and we’re not in agreement, we purse our lips. This is often seen during closing arguments in court trials. While one attorney speaks, opposing counsel will purse their lips in disagreement. Judges also do it as they disagree with attorneys at sidebar conferences.
What about lip pursing at the poker table? If you watch a player and he purses his lips right after he has checked his hole cards or seen a community card, there’s a good chance he’s unhappy with what he’s just seen and might very well disengage from the hand. This is particularly true if the lip pursing is accompanied by some other intention tell, like hand/arm withdrawal from the table or a shift in the player’s center of balance.
Here’s an example of lip pursing I witnessed at a recent nine-handed cash game. A player had exhibited a high-confidence tell when he fi rst looked at his hole cards and called a raise during the opening round of bets. When the fl op came, however, this same player pursed his lips. Another player put in a large raise, and the lip-pursing individual threw his hand away. I couldn’t determine if his opponent had spotted the lip-pursing tell and taken advantage of it; but watching for this kind of tell suggests how valuable it can be when you’re trying to put someone on a hand.
There is, however, something additional to consider when observing a pursed-lip response. As long as the pursed-lip behavior continues, it means the player is considering his alternatives. The pursing behavior goes away once the decision is made. If you play with the same opponent frequently and you are able to etermine that he does this all the time (purses his lips until he makes his decision), then you have a tremendous advantage. Now you know that once the pursing is over, he’s made his decision, so you can immediately look for other tells that will suggest his plan of action. Does he withdraw his hands from the table? Does he lean forward? Does he reach for his chips? The more cues you put together, the more of the puzzle you can solve. What’s important here is that you know when to start looking for the cues because you know that the moment the lip pursing stops, the player has made up his mind as to what he intends to do.
Hands that shake
Our limbic system is not called the emotional brain for nothing. When it sees or senses something desirable and exciting (like pocket aces), the arousal level goes up, and you can see in the affected person – to quote the old song – a whole lot of shakin’ going on!” This nonverbal behavior is often misinterpreted by individuals who observe it because most people believe that bad things are happening to people if their hands are shaking and/or they are making erratic movements. But, in poker the opposite is true. When you see someone reaching for his chips and his shaking hand knocks them over, or he looks at his cards and his hands begin to tremble, it’s usually a strong sign that something good has occurred, like Big Slick or a high pair in the hole.
This is your limbic system saying, “I’m happy,” and so your hands vibrate. And if this vibration doesn’t show in the hands, it’ll show elsewhere, like in your wiggling feet. Thus, erratic movements and shaking hands are high-confi dence tells that suggest your opponent holds strong cards and will play them accordingly. This is particularly true of amateur players, who have not learned to tone down their exuberance when sitting on a strong hand, and for almost all players when truly large amounts of money are at stake.
But wait… before you attribute all erratic, shaky behavior to good hands, I have to present a caveat: Our hands can shake when we’re excited, but it’s also possible that they can shake when we’re under stress (like when we have a weak hand and are trying to bluff). So, how can one tell the difference? Once again, the only way to know is to put the tell in the context of the game; consider the circumstances in which it occurred.
Let’s dissect a typical hand and see what we can discover. Assume we’re observing an opponent as he looks at his hole cards and his hands are steady, but upon seeing the flop his hands begin to shake. I’d assume he has a great hand. Now, let’s examine the same situation, but this time the player’s hands don’t shake upon seeing the flop, but they do when he makes a big bet after the flop. This time I might assume the shaking is due to the stress involved with a bluff. If the bet is also accompanied by other pacifying tells, like touching the neck or a lip press (where the lips seem to disappear), I’d be even more confident that the shaking was related to stress (rather than high confidence). Obviously, if the player’s hands were shaking both after he saw his cards and when he bet, I’d assume his hand was good and his confidence was high.
In general, hand shaking that begins or increases immediately after a player sees a new card (or cards) is usually a sign of card strength and high confi dence. Hand shaking that begins immediately after other significant table events take place – usually involving betting by the shaky player or his/ her opponents – is more likely to be the result of stress. Even here, however, there can be exceptions to the rule. For example, say a player has been dealt pocket aces in early position and decides to limp into the pot. Her hands don’t begin shaking when she looks at her cards, but rather when she puts her minimum bet into the pot. Here, shaking is due to a good hand and not a stressful and/or large bet. Of course, I’d try to spot other tells that would help me verify the accuracy of my assumption. In the meantime, I definitely wouldn’t raise her hand in these circumstances until I got a better read on the behavior.
As is the case in all attempts to determine tells, you need to have a baseline reading on your opponents’ normal hand steadiness so you can note when significant changes in movement occurs. There are very few players out there who tremble all the way through a poker session, but there are individual differences in physical arousal that need to be taken into account when assessing the true meaning of erratic movements and/or shaking hands. Any shaking behavior that starts or stops suddenly, or is markedly different from baseline behavior, deserves further scrutiny. Considering the context in which the shaking occurs, when it occurs, and any other tells that might support a specifi c interpretation of why it’s happening will improve your ability to read a person correctly.
Sending a telegraph
For those of you who are willing to study your opponents for nonverbal intention cues at the tables, enhanced success will be your reward. When we speak of a fighter “telegraphing a punch,” we are saying that he is revealing what he intends to do, before he does it. He might as well say to his opponent: “Hey, here comes an uppercut!” That is information worth knowing. When a poker player reveals, through an intention cue, what he plans to do before he does it, that is also information worth knowing… and the observant opponent (hopefully you!) will also get an upper cut… of the pot. Along these lines, keep in mind what I emphasize in my seminars: Even if you can’t read others well, at least be careful not to give up these tells or intention cues in your own behavior. You don’t want to provide observant opponents with information they can use to knock you out of a tournament or cash game.
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
