Hi everybody,

I am new to the forum and mostly with a beginner/intermediate level of poker skill. I joined my friends to play poker once every week, but that was over 10 years ago. I remember enjoying watching Phil Hellmuth

In real life, I am usually good in a social setting but remember not being particularly good at reading my opponent when playing poker.

I am currently playing the video game called Watch Dogs. In the game, there is a Poker mini game where the task is to clear the whole table. You play against 3 other poker players and there is a camera in the background that you can manipulate in order to read one of the opponents cards as well as checking his stress level.

The stress level would go up or down depending on the situation. Seeing your oppontent's card using the camera is sometimes tricky, so I am forced to rely on the stress level when playing. How should I read an increasing level of stress right after the cards are dealt? Does it in the majority of times indicate that the opponents have good or bad cards? I would assume good cards would mean higher stress, well at least in my situation. If I at a later stage were trying to bluff, then my stress level would also increase, but not sure if stress level can determine a bluff or real cards.

Not sure how "advanced" the stress level indicator is depicted in this game but I became very intersted in learning about it since I felt I was lacking this skill ten years again with playing with my friends.

I could have posted this on a regular video games forum but decided to post it here because you either might have played the game and thought the stress level feature was dumb or more or less accurate to how the opponent was playing.

I will look on the forum on find guides that put me in the right direction when learning about tells, behavior and pschology I was I had knowledge of when playing in the past

Not sure I'm understanding. You're talking about fictional characters in the computer game, right? Shouldn't it be obvious from the game play what their stress levels mean? I'd think the game would make that obvious for you.

Hi apokerplayer. Yes, they are fictional characters that you play against. Before the cards are dealt, you get the opportunity to check the stress level of one of your opponents (3 opponents all together). The stress level may change or remain more or less stable after the cards are dealt. The stress level goes from 0 to 100% but usually lie around 17%-22% before cards are dealt. Sometimes, their stress level before cards would start at 30%-50%, and I wonder if this would indicate a certain behavior.

Normally, stress level would increase after you get the cards or during betting.

What I wonder is, if you could only monitor someone's stress level during poker without seeing cards, what would a high level or sudden increase indicate? Are they more likely to play reclessly with higher stress? Or are they so worried of losing that they would only play if they truly had great cards?

I.e., does stress level in the majority of times indicate or anticipate a certain decision making, or would you have to play A LOT of rounds first in order to find pattern?

So are you asking just as applies to the game? It seems like you'd be able to see what cards they were playing and quickly correlate that to their stress level.

If I were the game's creator, I would make the AI play tighter (only playing strong starting cards) when they were more stressed. I don't know if that's what the game is doing, but that makes the most sense.

I'd also imagine it's supposed to be used as a bluff catching tool, if you're able to gauge their stress level when they're betting and see that they have high stress.

Just depends on what the game's creators have done, which is hard to know for sure, but it seems like you could get a sense of that from the game play.

Is the game at all decent? Post a screenshot if you feel like it. Kind of interested in seeing the interface.

Logically, one would assume high stress pre deal would indicate a tighter range, while increasing stress throughout the hand would indicate weakness and/or drawing hands, no?

If I play poker at the bar and 'Sally' checks the Flop I know I can safely bet the pot and she will fold every time. That's her programming.

Stress levels for humans can change based on experience, hand strength, stack size and their perceived relevance of the decision at hand. A player short stacking and shoving AA pre-Flop will have a different stress level than when facing a 4-bet decision with $550 behind (after starting the day with $100!!).

Both players have AA, both are pre-Flop decisions and yet the stress could be drastically different IMO. In both cases the player knows he's a huge favorite but yet views/fears the results in a different light.

Bryan Devonshire has told opponents numerous times that their caradic pulse was showing in their neckline during various times while playing against them, but with all tells you need some history to find out what it actually means.

The nice thing about your game is that your opponents will never change from their responses once you figure out what they mean. GL