Jeff Haney on a former FBI agent who learned to read suspects and now teaches poker players how to read ‘tells’

By Jeff Haney

Thursday, May 24, 2007 | 6:54 a.m.

For all his skill in spotting "tells" at the poker table, Joe Navarro has little interest in gambling himself.

During most of his 25-year career with the FBI, in fact, Navarro rarely used the word "tell" - a poker term referring to mannerisms through which players involuntarily reveal information about the strength of their hand or whether they might be bluffing.

"Poker players call them tells," Navarro said. "I call it 'nonverbal behavior' or 'nonverbal communication.' It's basically the same thing."

As a special agent and a supervisor in counterintelligence and counterterrorism with the FBI, Navarro had little time or inclination for gambling in poker parlors.

He did develop a reputation as an expert in the specialized fields of interviewing criminal suspects and decoding their actions.

More recently, he has taken to the poker lecture circuit, teaching professional s and amateurs to apply his skills to poker.

After all, if Navarro can use his expertise to catch a spy, how hard can it be for us to catch Mike Matusow running a bluff?

"From talking to pros like Phil Hellmuth," Navarro said, "I can tell you that the majority of them seem to think that tells constitute quite a large segment of tournament play."

Navarro's next tour stop comes at the World Series of Poker Academy Ladies Only poker camp, a two-day event scheduled for June 8-9 at Caesars Palace ($1,699, wsopacademy.com).

Leading player Annie Duke will join Navarro in conducting the seminar, and a tournament for participants will award 10 seats in the $1,000 buy in World Series ladies no-limit hold ' em event.

There's a substantial overlap between his work taking down high-level criminals for the FBI and tournament poker players working to take down a big payday, Navarro said.

"All behavior is driven by the brain unless some sort of an anomaly exists," Navarro said from his home in Florida. "Basically, you can divide nonverbal behavior into two forms - that which shows we are comfortable, and that which indicates some level of discomfort.

"It makes no difference whether you're in the interrogation room or the poker room."

Even though when he said "some sort of an anomaly" with respect to brain activity I immediately thought of most of the avid poker players I know, Navarro makes a compelling case about the importance of keeping the strength of your hand top secret.

"What was unbelievable to me was the amount of information that players simply give away, which really puts them at a disadvantage," Navarro said. "I'm not talking about the ability to read others, but just things they're giving away to their opponents by their actions.

"In addition to training people to read behavior and interpret it properly, I want to train them to conceal their own behavior to avoid transmitting any information."

Some gestures can be simple yet powerful, according to Navarro, such as a player rubbing his neck (watch out for a bluff), leaning in toward the center of the table (a strong hand), slumping his shoulders lower and lower (a poor hand), or suddenly developing "happy feet" while keeping the rest of his body still (he either has a great hand or he's excited about his upcoming trip to Disney World).

Addressing an audience of women interested in poker presents a unique opportunity for Navarro.

For years women typically felt intimidated when they sat down at a poker table because of the game's male-dominated demographics, Navarro said, and even today it's common for women to encounter opponents who are downright sexist.

Some male players, if they're easily distracted, might spend too much time staring at certain parts of their female counterparts' anatomy, Navarro said. Others might decide to play a more aggressive style of poker to test a woman .

"Female players can take this kind of information and use it to their advantage," Navarro said.

Duke, who won a World Series bracelet in a 2004 Omaha high/low tournament, agreed that women can turn their opponents' preconceived notions against them.

"A woman who is equal in skill and talents to her opponents will make more money than them, because her opponents will often have strong stereotypes that are difficult to break, even when new evidence is presented," Duke said.

Duke also hopes to encourage more women to participate in poker. By her estimate, women made up only 3 percent of the field of 8,773 players in last year's World Series of Poker main event.

"I find that disheartening," she said. "A poker table isn't like a football field. It's a game of skill, where men and women should be on equal footing."