From: The Telegraph

Forget the poker face, players need poker arms, study suggests

The Telegraph:

Keeping your cards close with an emotionless expression has been thought so successful for years that it has become a common term for tricks used to get ahead in life.

But a new study of the game has found that hand and arm movements when placing chips can betray the value of the cards a player is holding, even when they have the straightest face, the Independent reported.

Those who are confident that they could have a winning hand place their bets with a smoother arm that those who are trying to blag using poor cards, and observers can guess in just two seconds.

“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.

Their intentions could be seen from their arm movements when placing bets, the team from Tufts University in the US, found during three separate studies.

Read the whole story: The Telegraph


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.