Poker Study: Arms Give Off Greater Tells Than Faces

A new academic poker study that has come out might have shed some interesting light on the significance of arm movements at the poker table in comparison to the clichéd notion of a “poker face.”

According to reporting from The Independent, researchers from Tufts University in the United States have essentially figured out that players with strong holdings, or cards that are perceived to be winning, are more likely to make smoother arm movements when betting than those with weak holdings, or cards that are perceived to be losing.

It all sounds rather obvious, right?

According to The Independent:

“Researchers carried out three separate studies where men and women viewed 20 two-second-long video clips of professional poker players and rated the hand they were holding based on views of the face or the arms. Results show that judgments based on players’ faces were poorer than random guesses. That, said the researchers, suggests that not only were players able to conceal the quality of their hands, but also to create deceptive expressions. However, when the non-expert volunteers made judgments based on arm movements, the accuracy was better than chance.”

In other words, it is harder to hide tells that your arms give off. It has been speculated before, in separate poker theorizing, that the feet are also a key indicator of hand strength.

With all that said, some of the game’s top pros say that physical tells are not as important as some newcomers to the game think they are. Betting patterns are said to be key.

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