The Off Topic Topic

[Ideologue]

Don't you play poker regularly? 

I do play poker regularly, but not in the movies.  In real life picking up involuntary tells on someone you don't know is fool's errand.  The same involuntary tell can mean one thing for one person, completely the opposite thing for the second person, and mean nothing at all for the third person.  You need to establish a baseline before you can really make judgments that work better than flipping a coin.

When your eye bleeds, does it mean you're bluffing?

[katmai]

Really Cal, liking the Patriots

[alfred russel]

Don't you play poker regularly? 

I do play poker regularly, but not in the movies.  In real life picking up involuntary tells on someone you don't know is fool's errand.  The same involuntary tell can mean one thing for one person, completely the opposite thing for the second person, and mean nothing at all for the third person.  You need to establish a baseline before you can really make judgments that work better than flipping a coin.

When your eye bleeds, does it mean you're bluffing?

I just know this. If you notice sexual arousal when your opponent looks at his hand, run away. Whether or not he has a good hand, you are playing with a really sick pervert.

[Eddie Teach]

Sounds like you're calling Guller an uggo. 

Err, no I guess you're calling Ide one.

[Ideologue]

Hey, I can't help it.  I've got nice hands.  And we've got history.

[derspiess]

I do play poker regularly, but not in the movies.  In real life picking up involuntary tells on someone you don't know is fool's errand.  The same involuntary tell can mean one thing for one person, completely the opposite thing for the second person, and mean nothing at all for the third person.  You need to establish a baseline before you can really make judgments that work better than flipping a coin.

Yeah.  I probably look like I'm lying sometimes when I'm telling the truth but just uncomfortable with the question.  I didn't take the quiz but would be surprised if I got half of them right.

[The Brain]

I always lie.

[Caliga]

Really Cal, liking the Patriots

[DGuller]

I just know this. If you notice sexual arousal when your opponent looks at his hand, run away. Whether or not he has a good hand, you are playing with a really sick pervert.

This is not what you should do at all.  If you can notice sexual arousal in your opponent, then it probably means that he's doing quite badly that night and not playing his A game.

[Eddie Teach]

Maybe he's aroused by thinking about how much of your money he's won.

[garbon]

Or he just finds you hot.

[Eddie Teach]

Don't listen to Garbon or you'll lose the rest of your money too. 

[katmai]

Really Cal, liking the Patriots

<----Facebook stalker

[Ed Anger]

Creepy.

[DGuller]

I do play poker regularly, but not in the movies.  In real life picking up involuntary tells on someone you don't know is fool's errand.  The same involuntary tell can mean one thing for one person, completely the opposite thing for the second person, and mean nothing at all for the third person.  You need to establish a baseline before you can really make judgments that work better than flipping a coin.

Yeah.  I probably look like I'm lying sometimes when I'm telling the truth but just uncomfortable with the question.  I didn't take the quiz but would be surprised if I got half of them right.

Another problem with that quiz is that it's basically psychology students lying or not lying based on what they're asked to do.  Whether they tell the truth or not, they know that they're putting on a performance, and there are no stakes involved in pulling off a successful lie.  In poker, tells are generally reliable only in important pots, because that's when you get an adrenaline rush that makes it very hard for you to act normal.