The poker world is in the middle of a break as the World Series of Poker is on hold until November when the final table will see the final nine poker players compete the win the title. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Harvard and the California Institute of Technology have released a study about the poker face.

According to this academic study, the neutral poker face does not get the best results, as generally believed, especially if the poker player is bluffing. The study concludes that the best way to bluff is to act trustworthy and pleased, which means the player actually has to show he has a good poker hand.

On the other hand, the study revealed that when a player acts as if he had a bad hand or if he shows anger as if he had missed a good poker hand, opponents react with more aggressive poker bets. Apparently, the reaction to happy faces seems to be a universal and automatic one.

In comparison, a so called neutral poker face does not get much of a response in one way or the other. Anyway, all responses are affected by continued play, which gives opponents time to decide if the poker player bluffs frequently or not. It seems that the best poker strategy still is to study poker opponents and try to conceal one’s emotions as good as possible.