The most common emotion that people try to project is sadness, or disappointment. The truth of the matter is, whether you’re willing to admit it, or not. All people like sympathy, and a free pass; and that’s no different at the poker table. People know that they’re being watched, and they know that what is being watched for is emotion and expression. (You always have to remember that most of the time you are dealing with somebody whose perception of emotion and expression is engrained in them by movies and television, and therefore exaggerated.)
Because of this, that’s what they’re thinking YOU are looking for, and people tend to animate (or now that you know better, over animate) themselves in a way that tries to lure you into putting your money in, when they know they’re ahead.
Sadness is one of a few unique emotions that has no universal tells. Sadness in every human being is different. So when you see it, how do you tell if its genuine? Well its real simple. All you have to do is ask yourself, how ridiculous does this person look right now?
If the answer is, everyone looks like that when they’re sad then they’re probably faking it. They may be very slightly irritated, or a bit unhappy, but they are not vulnerable! The reason for this is, when a person becomes overwhelmed with sadness, their conscious view of themselves is at its weakest point. That leads to the inability to control the facial muscles, and allows them to move freely and at random (random to the person, not necessarily the situation.)
Its natural for somebody’s brain to tell the body in this situation to try to attract as much comfort as they can, from anywhere they can. While on the other hand, somebody faking it is going to show the movie expressions. You may see eyebrows raise without being drawn together, wrinkling the forehead, accompanied with enlarged puppy dog eyes. You may see the mouth curl down making a sad face, and what I’ve found to be a solid giveaway is, when somebody is projecting this and sees another person looking, they’ll look down, or purposefully break eye contact. THESE kind of people are trying to draw as much sympathy as possible, but without attracting a lot of attention by projecting what they’ve seen as socially acceptable sad behavior (aka movie sad).
This happens by default, because their perception of themselves is active trying to put together the perfect combination of expressions, and they don’t want to project one that will make them look foolish. (It’s a human ego thing, nobody looks bad on purpose.) The bottom line is, nobody is going to be in a hand if they’re legitimately sad. If a person can’t control the muscles in their face when they’re sad, they sure as hell aren’t going to be able to play poker.
Shame on the other hand, is a little different. You WILL see this at the poker table, and it can be very valuable, especially if you’re paying attention to WHEN you see it, in relation to what cards are out on the board. This can help you narrow hand ranges down, and guess whether a person was drawing or not so that next time you know that they’re willing to draw for X amount of the pot, and bet larger.
You’ll usually see this when somebody is really reaching for a draw and it misses, or at the end of the hand when they just couldn’t let go of the good starting hand. This occurs whether they have to show their hand or not (Sidenote: A rule players aren’t commonly familiar with is, whoever has the last aggressive action(last person to bet or raise only), has to show their cards first, or concede the hand (muck) and you don’t unless you intend to challenge it(or they muck)) The most common time I see the projection of shame is when a person turns over a pair of aces or kings, with 2-9 for their kicker. They know that’s a joke to even turn over, and vs. somebody whose been betting or calling/raising the whole way its usually beat. The people who muck most likely missed a draw, or had top or 2nd pair on the flop that obviously didn’t hold up after the remaining 2 cards.
Shame is easily spotted, and it has a little less to do with the face, and more to do with the body language that come with hiding it. When a person is ashamed, the most common tell is that their eyes go to the ground. At the table is usually goes to their chips. If they aren’t counting them (you can tell because they’ll have to physically leaf through the stacks that aren’t even (ie 10chips, 20 chips etc) Then they are staring at how much they have left after their last mistake. Their head will also tilt slightly away from the person they’re playing against, or when there are multiple people left, will tilt away from the last person to bet or raise. Its also very common for people to bring their hand up to their forehead.
Regardless how they touch it, what is happening is, subconsciously they’re trying to hide their face. You see this in politicians mostly outside of poker. At the poker table, this is usually going to be the player who was just talking about poker knowledge of some sort. I’m sure you’ve sat with the guy, who has something to say about everyone’s play, and what should’ve been done, and why he can’t do what he wanted to do, or had to fold, because of something he thinks he understands from internet play/videos.
The one who tries to project excellence, but rarely ends up with a stack large enough to legitimize his claims as being common sense at the end of the day. These are the players you should really hammer, especially if you see these common tells of shame 3 or 4 times in a session. They’re going to be getting involved in a lot of hands with marginal preflop holdings, and the earlier you hit them the better, because the more cards that hit the board, the more turmoil they tend to cause in a hand. Be ready though, if you become their equalizer at the table, they will verbally abuse your play, and bet sizing, and just about anything else they can find to try and make YOU feel stupid, and uncomfortable. But really what they’re trying to do is guide you into playing to their easiest perceptions. By that I mean, they want you to play like a robot so they can get a better read on you.
Whether you adjust immediately, or remember how to play with him (because surely you’ll recognize somebody whose been that verbal with you if you sit with them again) The most dangerous players at the table, are ones who can include the human element of play. (Rather than stereotypical internet play, advertised by the thousands of videos by people playing 50-100 limits(which is nothing like playing with the players at 1-2, 2-5, or even 5-10 limits)