Poker Face: The Neuroscience of Bluffing

One of the most appealing aspects of poker is the psychological battles between players. Through well timed bluffs and betting, players can unnerve their opponents and win hands purely based on how they play, something that is unique to poker. Some players may be better at pulling off bluffs, and successfully gain a psychological edge over their opponents. But why is this so?

The neuroscience behind bluffing is actually quite deeply rooted, and some players are more prone to bluffing than others. The frequency at which a player bluffs, how likely they are to fall victim to bluffs, and the extent to which they bluff can all be explained through cognitive psychology and behavioural analysis.

We will run through the various aspects of bluffing and poker faces – highlighting everything you need to know about how to bluff. After reading these points, you should be able to spot bluffs quicker, read players more easily, and optimise your bluffing strategy.

Physical Science Behind Bluffing

At its core, bluffing is the art of deceiving your opponents into thinking you have a different poker hand. Most often, you will use your bluffs to make them believe you are onto a winner. But bluffs can also be used to play down your hand, to get them to bet more money so that you can beat them after the river. When bluffing, we use several regions of our brains.

Decision Making Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the area of our brain that we use to make decisions and control impulses. You need to decide how hard you are going to bluff, time your bluffs, and compose yourself all within a few seconds. Poker is a fast paced game, and you cannot afford to dally when it’s your turn to make a move.

Controlling Our Fear in the Amygdala

The Amygdala is used to analyse potential threats and trigger your fight or flight response. This is something you will want to suppress to keep up your bluff. The natural response to taking such risks can include increased heart rate, sweating and even ticks such as blinking or flinching. This autonomic activity inadvertently gives your opponents the signals they need to read your bluff. You can suppress these responses by keeping calm and practising bluffing more often.

Weighing the Risks in the Insula

The insula is part of your cerebral cortex, and in context with bluffing, it is used to process risk and uncertainty. The more active your insula, the more you will doubt your ability and avoid bluffing altogether. It is more common among newcomers and players who have not bluffed much before. But with time and practice, the activity in your insula will be lowered when you decide to bluff. You will then bluff more confidently and possibly more often.

Rewarding Your Bluffs with a High

Bluffing can be stressful, as you attempt to deceive your peers and cannot do anything to undermine your bluff. During that time, you will feel physically stressed, but once the round is over, if you win, you will feel instant satisfaction. Your brain releases dopamine, the pleasure and motivation hormone. This effectively rewards you for winning your bluff and gives you the incentive to bluff again. Funnily enough, we can also feel the rush of dopamine before winning the bluff. When your bluff looks like it is going to pay off, you may get a premature dopamine hit. Dopamine rushes after winning are also known as the “winner’s highs“.

Players with a heightened amygdala response and activity in their insula will be more averse to bluffing. They fear bluffs, and their fear is also more evident, through sweating, ticks and other tell-tale bluffing signs. Those players who have lower activity in their insula and can control their amygdala responses have a better chance of winning their bluffs. Plus, these players may be more inclined to make bigger bluffs and use them more frequently.

Defining Bluffing and Poker Face Strategies

The poker face is part of your bluff, it is all about keeping your composure and repressing your autonomic fear responses. You need a composed poker face to bluff your opponents successfully. But there are various types of bluffs. It is not just simply bluffing that you have a better or a worse hand. You have to also take into consideration when these bluffs are timed, and how they are tied to probability.

Pure Bluffing/ Stone-Cold Bluff

This is the type of bluff most players think of first. It is the bluff when you have next to no chance of winning, and you are trying to force your opponent to fold. You must be completely composed when making this bluff, but you run the risk of coming off as overconfident. If a player can read your bluff and call your big bet, then you are in trouble. But if you can pull off a pure bluff, then you can take the pot even with a weak poker hand, or nothing in the hole.

Semi-bluffs

You have a weak hand, but following the flop, there is a possibility of forming a strong poker hand. For instance, you have draws to a flush or a straight. While there is every chance you will miss out on hitting the straight or flush, you fancy your chances and make a bluff. This is not a pure bluff, as there is potential to win, but you are relying on the turn and river cards.

Continuation Bet (C-Bet) Bluffs

This is a bluff that is used to put pressure on other players. You raise either preflop or following the flop, to apply pressure on the others early in the round. The strength of your hand does not really matter, you are paying attention to how your peers react. Your opponents will not know how wide they should defend their hands, and you can outmuscle them to win the pot.

Opportunistic Bluffs

After the flop, no one shows much interest in raising the bet around the table. You make a bluff based on the lack of interest at the table and not based on your cards in the hole. You are basically moving in on the blinds in the pot, seizing the opportunity that no one else has jumped on.

How to Read Poker Faces and Bluffs

Being able to spot bluffs is not just important for unravelling your opponents. You should also know these techniques to make your bluffs rock tight and impenetrable. Even the smallest tells can shatter your bluffs, and force you into tight situations or incur heavy losses.

Microexpressions and Facial Reactions

Anxiety can show through if not managed properly, and even the smallest twitch or frown can become tells. Especially if you have been playing for a long time and start to feel tired. Common microexpression giveaways include:

• Flickering eyelids
• Involuntary facial movements
• Moving your jaw
• Sharp intakes of breath
• Avoiding eye-contact

Speech Patterns and Chatting

Inexperienced players may try to calm their nerves by becoming vocal, and chatting more when they bluff. Or, if they stutter, use unnatural phrases, or talk awkwardly. That is not to say you should avoid talking at all when bluffing, but don’t overdo it.

Body Language at the Table

Your body language can also give away your bluffs. For instance, if you are fidgeting, moving your hands unnaturally, or changing your posture. These can all indicate that you are nervous, something that other players may read as a bluff.

Red Herrings to Mask Your Bluffs

Some players go above and beyond to hide their bluffs. We are talking about the players who sit at the table with sunglasses and hoodies – trying to conceal their faces. Or, they try to maintain rigid postures throughout their gaming, to not give away anything. These are not as effective as you may think, as they can also limit your visibility and awareness at the table. You shouldn’t only concentrate on masking your bluff, but also uncovering your opponents’ bluffs.

Bluffs can be read through a myriad of actions, not only your physical tells. For instance, you can also read bluffs through the betting timing and patterns, as well as how consistently your peers raise or call.

Mastering Your Poker Face and Bluffing Technique

Ultimately, the goal is to control your internal emotions and learn to concentrate your attention on the game. Bluffs are a crucial part of playing poker, but you also need to have a deep understanding of the game and probability. Being able to calculate how likely you are to win, the chances your opponent has a better hand than you, and how to time your raises is vital.

Some poker strategies help you enhance your chances of winning, but they can also be your undoing. Expert poker players know how to keep their opponents guessing and seem unpredictable in their betting frequencies and patterns. Learning the basics is not enough. If you want to compete with the very best, you will need to practise and play lots of poker. As a beginner, we would recommend you to play demo poker games, or enter free or pennies poker cash games. When you build your confidence and feel ready for bigger challenges, slowly increase your poker bankroll. Step by step, you will gradually improve until you are ready to enter the highest stakes poker tournaments.