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An interesting thing happened when I was running a bluff last night. I had the bottom of my range so decided to bluff $70 into $130. After I put out the bet I was very nervous and I saw the guy sitting there deliberating. I really thought he was going to put the pieces of the puzzle together and might call, but I had been repping strength since the flop, so I fired 3 barrels and thought he might fold. Anyway, as he was deliberating, he’s sitting across the table from me, so I wanted to do I guess what felt most natural, so I glance at him a few times, and he looks directly back at me. In the moment, I’m kind of terrified thinking he’s going to pick up on my nervousness or make some kind of a soul read. I don’t think it’s natural to stare someone down anyway, so then I glance away. But I didn’t want it to look like I was afraid to look at the guy, so a few seconds later I glanced back, looked away, and then maybe did it one more time. Each time, they guy stared me down. I feel like when I have it I might be less prone to look someone in the eyes interestingly enough. Anyway, do you guys have any thoughts on best practices for this? Exploitatively, do you think it makes you any more believable by looking your opponent in the eye a few times when you’re bluffing? And so then do the opposite when you have it? Obviously if you’re playing enough where your opponents could pick up on that, you’d want to stay balanced, but I’m thinking more of in a vacuum. Thanks! P.s> Turns out the guy folded on a kq4 rainbow flop, to my busted j10 3 barrel.
I try to do the same thing whether I’m bluffing or not. I like to look at people but instead of looking them in the eye and having some kind of mind game staring contest, I’ll look at them from the neck down. Across the table looking at someone’s neck/mouth has the same posture as looking at the face, mostly I’m watching their hands. Hands will usually tell you if someone wants to play or fold or is going to muck after a river bet.
Deer in the headlights is a classic weakness tell. Furtive glances cannot as easily be interpreted. But by your description, you sound like you looked nervous and ill at ease. So he either doesn’t understand what you were projecting, or could not correlate it with behavior earlier in the hand. Or he had a hand so weak it couldn’t even beat your bluff. Maybe he was just frustrated he didn’t make the move before you did (on the turn perhaps) with an equally bluffish hand. Maybe he was debating how often his missed AT was good in this spot and decided to save $$ by folding.
When you say ‘deer in the headlights’ you mean staring someone down? Also, I’m not sure it’s fair to say I looked nervous necessarily. I definitely felt nervous, but I’m probably thinking that’s easier to pick up on that it actually is. I think it’s somewhat natural to think if you’re feeling an intense emotion, other people are going to notice it even if your body language is identical to what it was before. I think it’s a failure to separate what you’re feeling from what other people know. In the moment I’m pretty stoic.
I agree that “furtive glances cannot as easily be interpreted”, but take that a bit further. As poker players we’re trying to learn what our opponent’s acton’s mean. Bet sizes, speed of betting, betting line. But those are interpretations of concrete things. Trying to guess how our opponents will interpret our “tells” is many times more difficult. We have no way of knowing how much thought they put into this part of the game or how far long in their evolution of thinking they are.
If you are trying to give off some signal specifically when you’re bluffing, villian will eventually figure that out. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he’ll see that pattern and start calling you down. Remember that micro-tells can get you as well. Probably best to do the same thing on bluffs as you do when you hold the nuts. Perhaps this is balancing your range for your behavior as well as your poker actions.
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