Behavioural analysis helps catch spies, poker tells
PAT MILTON
October 22, 2007 at 11:22 AM EDT
NEW YORK — As an FBI spy catcher, Joseph Navarro used to identify traitors through their subtle behavioural tics – even something as simple as a squint could be a giveaway.
These days, Mr. Navarro brings his investigator's eye to the poker table, where a bite of the lip or tilt of the head can signal a straight flush or a stone bluff. Navarro shares his decoding techniques with players eager for an edge in the world of professional poker.
“Poker players lie all the time,” he said. “They pretend they are strong when they are weak or weak when they are strong. The truth is they can all be read. You can have a poker face, but I've yet to see someone with a poker body.”
In the poker world, the giveaways are called “tells” – gestures that signal a player's confidence or discomfort. Mr. Navarro's first career made him uniquely qualified for his current job as an instructor at the World Series of Poker Academy.
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