95% of the time I play poker online but the other 5% of the time I enjoy visiting the local casinos close to where I live and engaging in some live poker tournaments. Playing in a poker tournament is a different experience of Texas Holdem poker where live poker tells, table talk and visible indicators to a players ability takes on a different dynamic. Top poker professional Daniel Negreanu, who writes a detailed and often controversial blog, wrote about his wish that poker sunglasses should be banned from all live poker tournaments. Let’s look at the arguments for and against this banning.
Why Poker Sunglasses are Worn
Wearing dark glasses prevents players from seeing into your eyes. You will be aware of the saying that “the eyes are the gateway to your soul” and we do not want our poker opponents being able to see into our soul! Small involuntary flicks of the muscles around the eyes can give away strength of our poker hands when we believe we are concealing them, utilising what we believe to be a strong poker face. If you are a stoic person you may not give too much away from your eyes and face but most people give off signals. Being involved in a large live poker tournament such things must be covered or disguised, poker sunglasses are used to improve your poker face.
The argument for Banning Sunglasses
Daniel Negreanu is arguably one of the very best poker players at hand reading and reading the body language of an opponent. It is therefore very much in his interest to be able to see as much of the player as possible to help him. Surely a skill of live poker is the ability to conceal your emotions rather than hiding behind your poker monitor during online poker. If this is the case it is only fair that if you are not good at concealment your results suffer. Poker is about skills and having a strong poker face is part of that skill.
Wearing a Phil Laak Hoodie or large sunglasses introverts you. Poker is supposed to be a social game and in a live setting the table banter is as much a part of the game as the cards themselves. Banning sunglasses would force players to socialise, even if socialising was a way of distracting themselves from giving away crucial tells to eagle-eyed players like Daniel!
The argument against Banning Sunglasses
Large poker tournaments see players risking large amounts of money and playing for potentially life-changing amounts of money. It is understandable that they want to give themselves the very best chance of success possible. Wearing sunglasses helps them conceal physical tells and socially interacting with their table will not be high on the agenda given the importance of the money risked and the winnings that could be made by a good finish. Many players would be dissuaded from entering a tournament when they know eagle-eyed sharks can read them without their sunglasses. This could lead to smaller fields in tournaments which is exactly what we do not want.
For every benefit the professionals would enjoy in being able to see the eyes of their opponents and face clearly, they would lose in players who decide not to enter because of it. There will be less dead money in the field and therefore smaller prizes for winning the poker tournament. A good player should be able to beat a bad player even with poker sunglasses as they do not make a massive difference and arguably no difference to the way a hand is played. This is what you should really be watching in order to beat a poker player out of their chips. From this perspective whether or not a player is wearing sunglasses is not that important.
What do you think? Would you enter a large poker tournament if you had to be fully exposed? Perhaps you do not wear poker sunglasses anyway. Comment below and have your say.
Why not join me on bwin.com today as you are running out of time to qualify for the WSOP Main Event. The WSOP is approaching fast and there will certainly be a vast array of poker sunglasses on display with big prizes to win.
By Malcolm Clarke
