the.com/poker face
The art of looking bored while holding either nothing or everything.
means A facial expression that reveals absolutely nothing about what you're thinking or holding, especially in a tense or competitive moment.
from Straight from the card table. In poker, a player's face can give away the strength of their hand — a flicker of excitement, a twitch of worry — so skilled players train their features into a blank, unreadable mask. The term surfaced in American English in the 1800s alongside the game itself, then wandered off the felt to describe anyone concealing their true feelings behind a deliberately neutral expression, from courtrooms to job interviews to awkward family dinners.
- origin
- From poker, where betting big needs zero facial feedback
- science
- Pros actually watch hands and breathing, not faces
- tell
- Everyone has one leak, usually under pressure
- irony
- Trying too hard to look calm is itself a tell