If you’re an 80’s music lover, you will know the following song…

If you’ve watched any televised poker tournament, then the image of the hat and sunglasses are familiar.

Outside of looking like they’re hiding from the TMZ tour bus, they’re utilizing a strategy to hide their tells.

What is a tell?  A tell is a physical reaction to a lie or a show of low confidence on a situation.  You may have watched the show “Lie to Me“, where the main character Dr. Cal Lightman runs an agency which determines if people are lying or not.  They use actual methods, noted in science.  I’m not going to go through every one of them, but I’m going to do a short breakdown on why the standard poker player use the following: hat/hoodie, sunglasses, and headphones.

Sunglasses – Contrary to popular belief, pupils do not dilate when someone lies, but when they are aroused or pleased, like if you catch a good hand.  Your pupils would automatically dilate, because that’s the natural bodily response.  Sunglasses can hide this fact.  Sunglasses also can hide if eyes are darting around, which is a sign of insecurity, and the carnal response in looking for a place to run.

Hat/hoodie – This is actually to hide the eyebrows and the forehead.  There’s something called a “micro expression”, which is when your face and body instantaneous react to something in a flash, and then goes back to normal.  Consider it an automatic reflex.  Since eyebrows are the considered the frame of the face, the raising and furrowing, even in a micro expression, can become a mirror to what you’re holding.  Furrowing of a forehead can denote frustration as a wide eyed expression can denote a winning hand.

Headphones – This has nothing to do with detection of lying as it does with emotions.  For the majority of the human species, music  can act as a mood stabilizer or booster, depending on what the person is listening to.  In stressful situations, the right kind of music can calm a player, preventing them from making rash plays, as well as keep them upbeat and hyped up during a game to keep their senses aware of what’s going on around them.

Note: none of the paraphernalia above is necessary to play poker.  Although you may see the pros doing this, the pros are generally playing 7-8 hours of tournament poker in a sitting, going on for 2 days, which is nowhere close to the situation many players end up being in, unless that’s what you’re gunning for.  If it is, a better way to psyche out players is by getting a better grasp of your thinking when you play, because it’s positive and negative reactions that your body mirrors that becomes your tell.  Change your thinking, and your response changes.

Good luck.

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_{Resources
“What the Eyes Tell You About Lying and Hidden Emotions” by Vanessa Van Edwards
“How to Detect Lies” on WikiHow}