The stare down
Poker Twitter was fairly entertaining this week as Alex Foxen and Stephen Chidwick had been seemingly obtaining a ‘stare out content’ as a side game in the US Poker Open. Each guys are really intimidating figures in the globe of reside poker and it seems they stared every other into a stalemate this week:
Round 3, I nonetheless consider Chidwick edged it, but maybe biased UK judge, will give it to the home side to set up a 2-1 encounter going into the 4th. pic.twitter.com/cY6jd0Vvgk
— Patrick Leonard (@padspoker) March 23, 2022
It really is not the very first time they located themselves in this particular battle, they did it final year at the PokerGO studios too:
Find a person who appears at you the way Alex Foxen and Stephen Chidwick appear at each and every other. ♥️ pic.twitter.com/4EiLXuu3TG
— Johnnie VIBΞS (@JohnnieVibes) March 24, 2022
Lots of individuals had opinions on this, so verify out the replies and quote tweets. For the most part players seemed to think that searching for ‘tells’ and trying to intimidate every single other by staring them down was an antiquated component of the game. Specifically at the highest levels, the likelihood of players of Chidwick and Foxen’s calibre giving considerably away seem very unlikely. 
Foxen, who for other reasons has not been especially shy on social media the final two years, in fact took some time to respond to the debate:
Yes to your final three queries
— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) March 24, 2022
In all seriousness, I do not stare at random rec on day 1 the identical as I do at stevie on an FT.
Also, is not this more exciting to watch than 2 men and women staring straight at the felt while tanking?
FWIW, dozens of recs have talked about hoping to get in a hand to expertise that appear lol— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) March 24, 2022
An exaggerated element of the game
Normally speaking I have constantly felt reside tells were an exaggerated part of the game and couple of individuals are actually adept at spotting them. I agree with Dara O’Kearney’s views on this that they are subjective and rife with confirmation bias. For the most component if I see a player stare down one more to attempt and get info or bully them, I assume they are really a poor player. 
At the elite levels exactly where Foxen and Chidwick reside I don’t think that at all, I suspect they both have their reasons for staring every single other down that are much more than plausible. Higher stakes players rely on extremely small edges when they play against every single other, it would not surprise me if a quite modest inform tends to make a huge distinction. 
It surprises me some individuals discover the stare downs objectional, although if you are currently somewhat shy in live poker settings I can see why they may add to your anxiousness about the bricks and mortar game. As a viewer I really find this to be comparatively harmless exciting to watch.
Plus any individual who thinks staring down looks cool need to appear at how very easily it is satirised, as our great pal David Lappin did this week: 
🎵 Let’s get it on… 🎶 (poker remix) pic.twitter.com/4pBLzQXPOx
— 🃏 David Lappin 🃏 (@dklappin) March 24, 2022
Do stare downs operate? Let us know in the comments:
