Everyone always says don’t forget your “poker” face, but a new study suggests that leaving the poker face behind and concentrating on your “poker arms” might have a better pay off.
“Even though professional players may be able to regulate their facial expressions, their arm movements could betray the quality of their poker hand,” the researchers wrote in the journal Psychological Science.
The Telegraph goes on to report on this study that says the are movements of poker players arms can delineate if they have a winning hand.
Researchers, from Tufts University, found that confident poker players (i.e. due to a good hand) were smoother as they placed their bets and 0bservers were able to spot this in only 2 seconds.
Participant’s, non-experts, guesses were poorer than random when based on the player’s faces. However, based on players’ arm movements the participants were able to be more accurate when detecting deception.
Learn more about emotions and Poker in our past blog “Are Anxious People Better Poker Players“.