Tells in Rock Paper Scissors.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is a mere hand game with several names and variations. And so you know, it is played around the world and is most times used the surest way of making decisions on issues. In some cases, Tells in Rock Paper Scissors is even played for sport. The rules require that opposing players use one hand to form one of three shapes at an agreed-upon time. The person that plays the most resilient “object” is the winner of the game. Yup, it is that easy! Rock, Paper, Scissors is a game that just anybody can play and win. There is no fundamental advantage to the stronger, older, or more experienced player.

So, you are already aware of what is involved in playing the Rock Paper Scissors game; however, have you thought about ways you could easily win in this game? If you have a specific strategy that works for you, it will, in no time, turn you into an expert in the game.

Nonetheless, just like every other game with contestants and a need for a winner, RPS has its tells that would naturally help very observant players to win without much fuss.

In case you are in the dark about tells in a game, let’s try to explain that as well. Tells are the unconscious gestures displayed by players during the game. It can come in several forms, for instance, eye movements, facial expressions, galvanic skin response, stance, muscle tension, and other forms of body movements.

Now, for you to comfortably understand the gesture displayed by your opponent during a tournament requires self-awareness and keen eyes that is perfected most of the time in front of a mirror.  It is important to note that not everyone loves standing in front of the mirror and practicing tells. In fact, some players attribute such practices to foolishness. There is no doubt that it is absolutely true. Standing in front of the mirror, moving your face and other parts of your body, sure sounds strange. One can decide to overlook the mirror method and videotape oneself while doing it.

When a player becomes aware of tells and their importance, such a player can try as much as possible to minimize its use during any match and thus leaving such a player unpredictable and a potential winner. In trying to do away with any signs of tells, a player should take a comfortable stance before anything. The idea behind a comfortable posture is that when the body is relaxed, there is little or no muscle tension and, thus, fewer muscular tells. Sadly, the eye and facial tells are almost impossible to eliminate. In this article, however, we have taken the pain of listing the possible tells and how it can be eliminated to the barest minimum.

Different Tells in Rock, Paper, Scissors

The angle of the arm: professional players in RPS have the tendency of playing an upright Paper. This is because, if the Paper throw is gestured in some other way, one can quickly tell when such a player is trying to play the Rock and Scissor since they would turn their arms to play.

Rock Jaw: the rock jaw is the name given to the tells observed when there is tension in the opponent’s jaw right before they play the Rock throw.

Cement Fist: when there is a noticeable tension around the knuckles, then there is a likelihood that the player is about to play the Rock gesture.

Placement of the thumb: if your rival has their thumb on top of the hand, then chances are, such an opponent is less likely to play Scissors because it is absolutely harder to throw by now. Nonetheless, professional players tend to keep their thumb by the side of the hand instead of on top.

Paper Hook: Some players have some level of affinity for curving their hand during the approach to the body right before they make the Paper gesture. When playing against an opponent, the paper hook looks like a backward ‘C’ when the opponent is right-handed.

In order to be able to play without exposing any tells, it is important to learn about the tells as earlier listed.

Now during these tournaments, players, most of the time, prepare their sequence of three gestures. This they do right before the game begins. Some tournament players develop strategies to confuse or convince the other player to make an illegal move, resulting in a loss. Well, these are some of the things you get to do if you really want to be really good at this game.

One of such strategies is to shout the name of one move right before throwing another. This is done solely to confuse and misdirect the opposing player. You can imagine the look on your opponent’s face when he expects you to throw a Rock, and you come up with Paper. Or when you are playing with a professional player, they give a fake tell just to mislead you.

Broadcasting False Tells

This is also a type of tells. The essence of this tells is to effectively mislead your opponent during a game. What a player does with this is to intentionally display fake eye cues, stance, facial expressions, and fake muscular gestures simply to misdirect the opponent. Now, one thing about this move is, it is expected to be used on professional players. Using it on rookies would be a simple waste since they may not be aware of tells yet.

If you plan to make use of this tells, be sure not to put on hand gloves, sunglasses, or the effect may not be noticed.

Anyway, if you are really looking forward to winning RPS games, you should have some tips in the back of your mind.

Throw Paper against a male challenger. Statistics have shown that inexpert males lead with Rock most of the time for their first move in the RPS game. Now, by throwing Paper on your first move against them, you stand a greater chance of winning them.

Throw Rock against a female challenger. This is funny but true. Most women tend to lead with Scissors, so if you throw out a Rock on the first play of the game, you are sure to win such an opponent.

Observe to be sure your opponent is using the same move twice in a row. If your competitor plays the same action twice in a row, chances are, they are not likely to use it a third time. So, you can assume they are not going to throw that move anymore. Put out a gesture that will give you either a stalemate or win, ensuring you won’t lose.