What a great poker question:
Question: When You Say Somebody Has a Poker Face, What Do You Mean?
Answer: A poker face is one that is not readable, or one that gives off absolutely no emotional response whatsoever. When playing poker, it is imperative that you remain as cool and unemotional as possible, as other players will attempt to deduce what kind of hand you have by your facial features. For instance, some players, when holding a good hand, may cough, or scratch their eyebrow, or breathe deeply, or blink rapidly, or do any number of other signs or signals that tell other players that the player has a hand that is apt to beat theirs, and so they should fold. This is called a "tell", and most serious poker players spend at least half of their time learning how to discern tells. Having a poker face means having no tells at all, which makes it harder for your opponents to bet against you. Indeed, most poker experts agree that 80 to 90% of poker is bluffing (making people think you have a better - or worse - hand than you actually do so as to interfere with their betting).
To make a long story short, if you say somebody has a poker face, you are saying that it is difficult to tell what the person is thinking or feeling.
Comments
2 comments
Mike Smith
May 25, 2011
They have a straight face that doesn’t let on to their emotions, like when you have an awesome hand in poker but sit there like you’re in distress to trick the other people.
May 25, 2011
Isn’t is like a face with no expression??? That’s how i see it because when you watch people playing poker they are super serious.