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How To Maintain A Poker Face

Ask any poker player and they’ll all eventually admit that playing poker is a high-stress activity. But they will also point out, that in spite of the considerable pressure, it’s important they continuously maintain their composure. It’s best to keep a completely expressionless face. This is known as a poker face. It gives away none of the underlying emotions. Many see this as essential to safeguarding their game plan. If you ask any professional poker player, then they will tell you that keeping your emotions in check is an essential component of being able to win. Many seasoned players will point out that they use specific techniques in order to maintain composer. Especially as the poker stakes start to increase along with the stress levels.

The general definition of a poker face is a facial expression that conceals any underlying sentiments or emotions. In a high-stakes jackpot poker card game, then veteran players will make use of a poker face in order to disguise their feelings. You might be surprised how an inadvertent random twitch or gasp is enough to give your opponents an insight into how you feel about your hand. 

We should point out that these jackpot winning tips and tricks will be redundant when you’re playing online, as at the vast majority of online casinos like 22Bet Casino, the other players can’t see your face.

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Tips On Keeping A Poker Face

Keeping a poker face during the stresses of high-stakes poker games is a difficult task. But by memorizing some tips and tricks it’s possible to acquire a poker face and be able to utilize it at will. After all, being able to skillfully hide your game plan is an essential constituent that will allow you to suddenly increase your jackpot winning chances.

Maintain Eye Contact 

eye contact

They say that the eyes of the gateway to the soul. To this end, it’s important that you stop yourself from looking in all directions out of the corner of your eye. We suggest that you learn to maintain eye contact with your opponents. By maintaining a continuous gaze, you’ll give the appearance of confidence. And also have the perception of someone with nothing to hide. If you’re feeling super-confident, you can always stare down your opponents. Rather than look directly into their eyes, it’s a good idea to concentrate on the bridge of their nose. At the same time, you should minimize your eye movements. You’ll notice that many poker players today wear sunglasses in order to hide any emotions or poker tells that might be shown by their inadvertent eye movements.

Keep A Relaxed Posture

We suggest that when you first sit down at the poker table, you ought to arch your back, take a deep breath, exercise your shoulders, and settle yourself into a natural upright position. The social psychologist, Ann Cuddy, designed a science around the power of posing. She suggested that having a confident posture before you enter a major occasion will help increase your confidence. When it comes to poker players, tend to use “power posing” as a means of throwing off their opponents. So try and shake off any tenseness in your limbs. Roll your head around on your neck in order to loosen your muscles. All these movements should be designed to break any tension and help you maintain a relaxed and confident posture. This all helps with keeping a poker face.

Don’t Fidget

Part and parcel of appearing to be relaxed are that you should stop yourself from nervously fidgeting. Especially when you are excited or under stress. It’s important to take a mental note of any tells or ticks you might make almost on a subconscious level. If you watch other players, you may see such things as biting fingernails, tapping the table with fingers, pulling on their sleeves, or constantly cracking their knuckles. In many ways, these are simply forms of displacement behaviour. When a player is feeling under stress and tense, these are more likely to come to the surface.

Divert Your Tension

It might surprise you just how many poker players carry a stress ball to the poker table. Under extremely tense conditions it’s a good idea to grasp the ball in your fist while concealing your hand. This will help you relieve any tension that may be stored in your core. The idea here is that all your anxiety should accumulate in one part of your body. Leaving the rest of you feeling more relaxed and able to better maintain a poker face. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t clutch or clench your cards too firmly. A sign of white knuckles is a common indicator that you’re feeling the effects of stress.

Talk As Little As Possible

Silent

You probably noticed in ordinary life that there are some people who will talk a lot more when they’re feeling stressed. At the poker table, this is a very common behaviour you’ll mainly see in novices and beginners. You can thank Hollywood casino movies for the idea that all poker players are smooth talkers and can use that psychology to get into the heads of their opponents. But the reality is that this so-called, “trash talking”, is very difficult to carry out effectively. 

The problem here is that you’re more likely to reveal your own vulnerabilities rather than those of your appointment. We think it’s a good idea that you speak as little as possible at the poker table. You never know when you’re stuttering, stumbling over your sentences, or fumbling over words. It’s a good idea to remain silent and simply communicate with nods and hand gestures if necessary.

Conclusion: Maintaining A Poker Face

Please don’t think that you can just pull up at the poker table in a casino and start utilizing the above techniques. That’s because, in order for them to be effective, they need to appear to be natural. As with all our behaviours, this requires rigorous practice over long periods of time. We suggest that you practice a poker face in front of a mirror. Likewise, you should start up some form of meditation as this will allow you to concentrate better and master a sense of self control. Only when you’re feeling that all your poker tells are completely hidden behind a well-formed poker face should you venture out into the casino gaming floor to try your luck at the poker tables with real cash.

Conversely, you could head over to the best site to play poker, which also happens to be our favourite online casino, 22Bet Casino. They have a massive number of poker options including all the famous games. Not only that, but you can play them with a live dealer, giving you a real casino playing experience from the comfort of your own sofa at home. And we should also mention their bonkers welcome bonus for all new players of 100% up to 300 Euros! This is a great way to start your online poker journey.

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