It may be entirely beyond the average poker player that at any moment of the game he or she projects a specific image. Players are either unaware of the fact that an image had better be consciously maintained or trying to avoid projecting any image by assuming a sort of somberly inexpressive expression. Shielded behind shades and baseball cap, unsmiling, moodily silent, they believe that they thus “minimize” communication with the rest of the table.

But unless they completely disappear - did Welles’s invisible man play poker? - they will always project just enough information for good players to exploit. They are not only likely to attract other and better skilled silent scarecrows similar to themselves, but they are also likely to scare away those players who would otherwise constitute the bulk of their regular income.

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