How to Tell If Someone’s Bluffing: Body Language Lessons from a Poker Pro | Liv Boeree | Big Think

How to Tell If Someone’s Bluffing: Body Language Lessons from a Poker Pro
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LIV BOEREE:

Olivia "Liv" Boeree is a poker player, TV presenter and model from England who won the 2010 European Poker Tour in Sanremo. Born in Kent, Boeree studied at Ashford School before going on to earn a First Class Honours degree in Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. She was the #1 ranked female player on the Global Poker Index as of November 2015, and #6 on the female all-time live poker winnings list.

Boeree was a keen guitar player in her early twenties, specializing in the heavy metal genre. In University she played lead guitar in the band Dissonance, and in 2006 she briefly featured as lead guitarist for rock/goth band Nemhain before starting her career in poker.

Boeree also modeled in her early twenties for rock and alternative lifestyle features.

On 21 April 2010, Boeree won the European Poker Tour main event in San Remo, at the time the largest ever poker tournament held on European soil. Boeree won €1,250,000 and thereby became the third woman ever to win an EPT title.

She has shown continuous success on the EPT circuit with twelve Main Event cashes to date. Other notable results include a 2nd place in the 2014 UKIPT Edinburgh Main Event a 3rd place in the EPT Barcelona High Roller event for €391,000 in August 2015.

Boeree has been a member of Team PokerStars Pro since September 2010. Her total live tournament winnings exceed $3,000,000.

In February 2016 she was announced as the Team Manager of the Global Poker League team "The London Royals".
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TRANSCRIPT:

Liv Boeree: When it comes to body language, it's never an exact art. The things I'm going to suggest, they're all guidelines. But that said there are some certain things that as a poker player I'll look for. And the most important thing is, first of all, to get a baseline of somebody. It's impossible to tell whether the behavior someone is showing is meaningful or not if you don't know how they naturally behave. So the first thing I'll do when I sit down at the table is look at what my opponents are doing when they're not in a hand: are they naturally quite gregarious, are they confident when they interact with the waitress, or are they naturally quite quiet and shy? How do they sit? Are they naturally closed off? Are they very languishing”—that kind of thing?

And once I've got an idea of their baseline outside of a hand then I look to see how they deviate from that when they're actually in the middle of playing or in a tense situation. In general what you want to look for in both poker—but also when you're trying to figure out if someone is lying—is their comfort level, if they seem authentic. As a rule of thumb, humans are actually quite good at picking up authenticity or if someone is being disingenuous. So that's the thing to look out for, and there are some like classic behaviors...

[RalphsLegend]

That's why I approach the game with a completely different strategy: keep my lower body as still as possible, and just run my face through a fluctuation of random emotions for the entirety of the game. It works 60% of the time, every time!

[jaimesalvadorocamporamon]

This actually does help a lot for low stakes live cash games. Where people are pretty transparent with their body language. Thanks!

[bits]

As a rule of thumb she doesn't share her tricks!!! She's bluffing 😴😴😴

[BillionairewannaB]

I was just scratching my she thinks I am bluffing.

[alejosky]

Cersei knows her shit; that's why she is so good at the game of thrones.

[muizzkhan]

Was just looking at some information on criminology this video really helps. Thank you.

[Faceofscar]

I have adhd. When I'm at the table I try to sit in a comfortable manner. My legs are naturally bouncing around and I'm always shuffling chips and keeping my hands busy...due to it being hard for me to sit still. That being said I have my ritual for when the cards are delt to me and I never deviate from that. I look at my 2 cards then flip them around and look at them again then I cap them with a chip and put them in front of me. Then continue to shuffle chips.

[noyb]

the reverse tell bluff is the most common in my opinion. especially when they are strong but want to look like they are agonizing. like a sigh, right before an all-in raise. watch out for that.

[dustinplatt]

2:39
Me: Looks down at player next to me

Girl: Ugh, excuse me what? what are you looking at?

Me: It's fine.., Liv said it's ok.

[Clifton]

Effective altruism is an incredible movement. Totally inspiring to see a professional gambler take life by the balls, if that's the appropriate expression.

[ElliePetrova]

How the hell do you carelessly look at someones feet, Liv?!

[kayhaich]

I got some useful information that players have a tendency to snap-shove when they're bluffing, it actually checks out when I started observing others doing the same thing.

[Flying_Scorpion]

Joe Narravo had a book called "What Every Body is Saying" that's really good on the subject of body language.

[samueldowns]

Nice. I like the entire match. I think it's better than a highlight type of format.

[exthomes]

Excellent video, and pretty too. Thanks for the post

[sugarhieroglyph]

I'm not real, so this won't work on me.

[importantname]

Importantly most people some times act like they are bluffing when they are bluffing, so they can then act the same way when they are not bluffing. Is the acting like they are bluffing a bluff?

[TAEYYO]

And when someone is constantly looking beneath the poker-table there's a good chance they're trying to see if you're bluffing so try to be subtle!

[thomasdonovan]

Fani Willis and Nathan Wade gave US a master class.

[papaa]

Many low stake players dont know how to keep a calm body and a poker face
In high stakes theyre either very calm or fake their reactions