Most people, in the course of life, know whether a person is sincere or just pretending. They look for consistency in words and actions, like saying "no" and shaking the head side to side. Or they notice when a person is being positive and their body-language contradicts them. These are the obvious actions that confirm or deny what is being said or implied.

In my book, Beyond Tells, I used personality types to show how a tell may mean different things for different personalities. For example, take the tell of placing a bet in softly or gently. This can be entirely different for players who tend to be emotional and intuitively based. Such players don't want to displease others. However, for an aggressive high roller who doesn't care about that, and tends to be more impulsive, being gentle means being deceptive. Why? It's simply because it's a change for one and normal for the other. The emotionally based player is used to acting quietly while the aggressive player generally splashes the pot. When players act opposite of their natural set, they are pretending rather than being sincere.

In Beyond Bluffs I discussed bluffing styles from "Passive Bluffers" to "Aggressive Bluffers." I compared them to tight players and loose players. By looking at these styles you can quickly understand how a person is attempting to deceive an opponent by noticing the way they play poker. There are four major styles of being deceptive:

1. Players who are both aggressive and structured in how they will deceive you will have a plan, and will execute their bluffs. For instance, an ordinarily reserved player who is also aggressive when he doesn't have anything will plan to act as if he just made a flush when a third suited card shows up in Texas hold 'em. That player is counting on a reputation for being tight.

2. On the other hand, an ordinarily loose player who is aggressive will deceive you impulsively while being assertive about it. These are players who like to use the fact that they have a lot of chips as automatic all-ins or raises, and they hope you believe "it wouldn't be poker to call them."

3. A passive and tight player will predictably be more structured, yet passive in his approaches to being deceptive. For example, this style of bluffing is centered around quietly letting others do the raising, and then surprising you when they show their hand.

4. The passive, yet responsive bluffer will deceive other players more from their gut or intuition when they have a hunch that a raise will get opponents to fold. Their bluffs tend to be based on the judgment that another player is showing weakness. It doesn't seem to occur to these bluffers that a show of weakness may be a bluff aimed at them.

When left brain players, who are tight, and right brain players, who are loose, change this modus of acting they are telling you that they are being deceptive. So ask yourself how you are as a player. Do you tend to be reserved or more "happy go lucky" to other players. Then ask yourself, "When I am pretending to have more of a hand than I do, am I different from how I usually am?" Chances are that you give yourself away when you are deceptive.

There are the players who seem to know all of this and act the same when they are being deceptive. But if you know what to look for even these skillful liars will eventually trip themselves up. That's when knowing about eye movements-described in Beyond Bluffs-will tell on them. Yes, even with sunglasses, it's harder, but possible to read eye movements.

Jim McKenna has been practicing psychotherapy for more than thirty-five years. His books include the acclaimed Beyond Tells: Power Poker Psychology, Beyond Bluffs: Master the Mysteries of Poker, and Beyond Traps: The Anatomy of Poker Success, all published by Kensington Press. Write to Jim@Jimmckenna-PhD.com.