Mastering the Poker Face: How to Stay Unreadable and Read Tells Like a Pro

You might have heard the term poker face from the TV show featuring Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, but does it actually mean anything at the poker table? It does. In fact, if you can learn to spot a lie like Charlie Cale, you’ll become a much stronger poker player by picking up important tells.

Once you know what a poker face is, the skill is learning how to decipher the information you’ve gleaned. In this guide, we’ll show you how to do that and much more. So, if you’re ready, here’s how to read physical tells and develop a strong poker face.

At its simplest, having a poker face means that you’re physically unreadable to other players at the table. In most cases, people use the term 'stoic' to describe someone with a poker face. By that, we mean you’re expressionless, even in the face of extreme emotions.

You don't want to look anxious when you're running a huge bluff for your entire stack, so you try to remain expressionless. That’s the definition of a poker face, but why do you need one? So your opponent doesn’t know you’re scared, excited, or whatever other emotional state you might be in and give away what move you're going to make next.

A strong poker face helps you hide emotion while you study others for information. Beginners often assume that every tell means weakness, but in reality, physical movement or hesitation can also signal excitement. The key is combining physical, betting, and timing tells rather than relying on one alone. Understanding this balance makes you a much stronger live poker player.

When you’re sitting at a live poker table, body language and facial cues can speak louder than words. Here are some of the most common physical tells, and what they might mean when you’re sizing up your opponent’s poker face:

There aren’t any definitive answers to what each tell means. A physical tell is little more than a clue. It indicates that the player is trying to hide something, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you what they’re hiding.

If they’re staring directly at you, does that mean they’re bluffing or enticing you to call? To decide that, take into account everything else that happened up until that point, as well as the things players do to develop their own poker face.

Just as you can see other players, other players can see you. That’s why you need to develop a strong poker face.

Here are five tips for developing the perfect poker face and, in turn, reducing the number of physical tells you give away:

• Look in the Mirror: Get to know your own facial expressions. Running through different scenarios in your head allows you to see and feel how your face moves, which makes it easier to control expressions.

• Record Yourself: Use your phone to record yourself playing poker online. Try to forget the camera is rolling, but remember that you’re aiming to remain as stoic as possible. Watch the video back while reviewing your hand history to see if you can spot when you were strong vs. weak.

• Be Robotic: The best way to reduce the risk of giving off tells is to do the same movements every time. For example, you could always use your right hand to count chips and take 10 seconds to act, regardless of whether you’re going to call, bet, raise, or fold.

• Stay Calm: Focus on your breathing throughout the hand. Adrenaline will cause your heart rate to spike in high-pressure situations, but you can still control your breathing. Take deep, even breaths.

• Forget the Outcome: Try not to think about the outcome of the hand. Instead, think about your betting patterns, what your opponent might have, and how likely your move is to succeed. When you think about the money you might win/lose, it increases your emotions, which can cause your poker face to crack.

Practice these things, and you’ll have a better chance of being unreadable when you play live poker games. Then, when you get really confident at maintaining a poker face and reading tells, you can think about reverse tells.

Once you’ve mastered being unreadable, you can then take it one step further by using reverse tells. For example, since players often look away when they’re bluffing, deliberately doing so when you’re strong can make your opponent misread you. Skilled players use this to manipulate observant opponents and turn their own body language into a weapon.

The art of maintaining a stoic poker face is a fundamental skill that all live players need to master. You need to master this skill for two reasons:

• You need to remain indifferent so opponents can’t spot your strengths and weaknesses.

• You need to spot physical tells so you can detect when opponents are weak and strong.

When you can manage your own poker face while spotting physical tells in others, you’ll become a much tougher player to beat in Texas Hold’em and other variants.