3 Clever Ways to Win Your Friends’ Money In Poker and Blackjack

Related: The Men’s Health Better Man Project—2,476+ Scientific Tricks For Kicking More Ass

Track Your Friends’ Glances

Keep an eye on your opponents’ eyes—their gazes may give them away. Eye movements can reflect the numerical value of blackjack hands, suggests a new study from Colorado College.

Scientists found that when players had high-value hands, they tended to look to their right, while having worse cards led to more left glances.

Related: 3 Tricks to Tell If Someone’s Lying to You 

One potential explanation: Research suggests that when you have to silently do math in your head, you look to the left to subtract, and to the right to add. If your opponent has low-value cards (like 2s and 3s), he may subconsciously look to the right to add up his cards. 

Choose the Right Chips

Bring a poker set with multi-colored chips and take the red ones for yourself. Poker players are more likely to fold if their competitors play with red chips, finds research in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Research shows that people find the color red intimidating and associate it with the danger of failure. In the study, players who used red chips also felt stronger, more competitive, and self-assured.

Related: Every Man Can Exude Confidence—As Long As He Follows These 3 Steps 

Watch Their Arms

Researchers from Stanford University found that the “smoothness” of poker players’ arm movements when they pushed their chips forward predicted their likelihood of winning. 

Look at the way your opponent handles his chips: If he doesn’t jerk his arms around, or hesitate before pushing the chips, he probably has a good hand, the study suggests. 

Additional reporting by Andrew Daniels and Laura Tedesco

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