Texas hold'em : deception and deception detection in a poker game

This study introduces Texas Hold'em Poker as a research interest and discusses the use of poker in studying interpersonal deception. The first section reviews relevant literature in the study of deception and detection in order to answer: 1) What is the base rate of deceptive attempts for poker players? 2A) What types of tells are exhibited? 2B) What inconsistent nonverbal behavior does each player exhibit? This research also hypothesizes that bluffers will engage in consistent nonverbal behavior in bluffing and non bluffing sets. The second section describes the methods used. A videotaped poker game was recorded and analyzed. Twenty nonverbal behaviors were coded and frequency of behavior was calculated. The third section describes the results of the analysis: base rate, tells, and inconsistencies. Finally, the last section discusses the results, conclusions, limitations, and further avenues of study.Department of Communication StudiesThesis (M.A.