I was watching the World Series of poker on the Travel channel recently, and I noticed they allow players to wear sunglasses at the table. It made me wonder about Botox.
Even at higher stakes poker there are players who read their opponents - surely Botox injections would gain an advantage at having a poker face? Are there rules against doing this? Are there known pros who have done it?
I’d wear sunglasses.
The reads to which you refer are called “tells” and at that level the facial tells are minimum. The information those men and women get are more from betting tendencies and previous strategy.
Poker is damn fun…
I think that by the time you get there, Botox isn’t neccessary.
I’d agree with smiling bandit. I saw a fellow win a poker championship in Las Vegas on a TV show a few years ago, and I don’t think the guy was physically capable of showing emotion anymore. Even after they handed him the check for $1 million, he just kept that frozen look on his face as he thanked the presenter.
Not quite a hijack, but I always thought that a player with his entire head wrapped in ace bandages with big sunglasses on would really spice up the rather boring World Poker Tour.
Yeah, especially after he won, and unwrapped the bandages to reveal he was invisible underneath.
On the other hand, how common is it in big-time poker to try to bluff using your supposed “tells”? That is to say, rather than always putting on a blank face, occasionally deliberately putting on a non-blank face so as to deceive anyone looking for a facial tell? I imagine that you could only get away with this once, but if the stakes are high enough, it might be worth it that one time. And you might be able to use such tactics repeatedly when playing against novices (who, after all, are much more profitable opponents than other pros).
Ah, that’s a good point Chronos - hadn’t thought of that.
I thought most pros were beyond the stage of reading other players’ tells until I saw Phil Helmuth interviewed, where he actually said that he still looks for tells even at the World Series level…