So how can you, the reader, benefit from all this? As you play for increasingly higher stakes, stress will become an increasingly significant factor at the table, and it is then that your knowledge of pacifying tells will aid you in reading on your opponent(s). Here are some guidelines to help you understand and utilize pacifying behavioral tells most effectively in poker.
1. You need to recognize pacifying behaviors when they occur.
2. You need to establish a pacifying baseline for each opponent when things are calm at the table (usually when a player is between hands or already out of a hand). Some players will self-pacify throughout their time at the table; others won't pacify at all except when their stress levels rise significantly. By identifying a player's baseline behavior, you can note any increase and/or intensity in pacifying behaviors and react accordingly.
3. When you see an opponent make a pacifying gesture, you need to stop and ask yourself, " What caused him to do that?" You know that the player feels uneasy about something; your job is to find out what that something is.
4. Pacifying behaviors almost always are used to calm a person after a stressful event occurs; thus, as a general principle, you can assume that if a player is engaged in pacifying behavior, some stressful event has preceded it and caused it to happen.
5. Stress behaviors are most likely to occur immediately after significant actions at the poker table, primarily when players see new card(s) or bets (particularly large raises or reraises). Thus, this is the time to watch for them and any pacifying behaviors that follow.
6. The ability to link a pacifying behavior with the specific stress or that caused it can help you play your opponent more effectively. If, for example, Player A puts in a big raise and, upon seeing this. Player B immediately begins to rub the back of his neck (a pacifying behavior), that bet has caused enough stress that Player B's brain is begging to be pacified. This should serve as a clue that the bet has upset Player B, and you'll want to consider that information in your play of the hand. What does Player B's behavior suggest? Possibly that he doesn't want to risk that much money, and so the size of the bet stressed him and now he is pacifying to calm down. A more likely inference is that Player B doesn't have the hand strength to call or come over the top of Player A's raise, and that is what has created the stress and resultant pacifying behavior.
7. Pacifying behaviors can help you read a person more effectively when they are accompanied by other tells. Thus, you should be attempting to spot multiple tells whenever possible to make better overall judgments about a person's intentions and hand strength. For example, if you see a player press her lips together after seeing the flop (low-confidence tell) and then put in a big bet, followed by a pacifying behavior (stroking the face or licking the lips), you can be more certain she has a weak hand and is pacifying to relieve the stress of bluffing. Another example; if the turn card is revealed and you see a player lean away from the table (low-confidence tell) and then pacify (rub his forehead), you can be relatively certain the card didn't help his hand!
8. Note what part of the body a person pacifies. This is significant, because the higher the stress, the greater the amount of facial or neck stroking is involved.
9. Observe the intensity (frequency, pressure applied) of the pacifying behavior. If a person is a smoker and he is stressed, he will smoke more. If he chews gum, he will chew faster.
10. Although not always true, one should always consider that a player is bluffing if he shows pacifying behaviors immediately after making a big bet at the pot. One tournament player who is often on television has a habit of puffing out his cheeks and then slowly exhaling through his lips. This is a pacifying behavior, and he consistently does this when he's on a bluff.
11. Recall that the higher the stakes, the greater the stress; and the greater the stress, the wore pacifying behaviors you will see at the table.
