Head Games
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Reading Minds at Work and Play
Humans have a startling ability to extract meaning from words. For most, a facility with written and spoken language is second nature by adolescence. Reading people on the other hand—deciphering the non-verbal, often unconscious signals they send out—is a highly specialized talent, one that Andrew Rubin (Ph.D. PSYC ’01) has honed to an uncanny degree.
In the course of his career in clinical psychology, Rubin has become keenly attuned to facial and bodily intimations in his patients, drawing on a silent storehouse of emotional data to help children and adults. Today, his thriving Florida practice assists those with infant and childhood development issues, couples facing relational problems, and those grappling with depression.
But don’t expect much empathy should you encounter Rubin across a poker table. There, his people-reading prowess is likely to be used against you. Indeed, Dr. Drew, “The Poker Ph.D.” (as ESPN announcers dubbed him), has a deadly knack for reading tells—subtle clues players give regarding the cards they hold. This ability has earned Rubin “casino cred” from seasoned pros, not to mention more than a quarter-million dollars in prize winnings.
Schools of Thought
Rubin’s fascination with psychology lured him to IIT, where he earned his doctorate in clinical psychology. It was an experience Rubin recalls with deep fondness: “IIT was a wonderful learning environment, and Robert Schleser was one of the greatest mentors a person could ever have,” he says, referring to his advisor at the Institute of Psychology.
An obsession with poker, however, didn’t blossom until his post-grad days. Rubin found himself at Tulane University, where an old IIT buddy, Lorenzo Azzi (Ph.D. PSYC ’01), was interning. Amid their academic studies, the two psychologist friends took up poker—first casually, soon with ferocious determination. “Drew and I are very competitive,” Azzi says, adding that both also were strong athletes. “As we got older, our bodies didn’t allow us to compete at our previous levels. So we gravitated toward another area where we felt we had an edge on our opponents,” he adds with a laugh.
Periodic Tables
New Orleans’ thriving assortment of gambling dens and riverboat casinos provided an ideal second campus for the pair. After making the evening rounds, the two would often stay up for hours playing one-on-one poker and honing their skills.
Rubin also was digesting poker books with a near-insatiable appetite, though he found the art and science of reading tells inadequately explored. This was particularly true with respect to his game of choice—Texas Hold ’Em, a lively poker variant that has recently become a national sensation. “If you look at all the successful players who make it to the final tables over and over again,” Rubin insists, “their ability to read other players is a significant factor.” Having mastered all fundamentals of the game, he undertook a comprehensive study of poker’s often-elusive psychological aspects, in particular, the decryption of tells.
Learning to Read
The traditional poker face—a blank slate leeched of emotional affect—is for poker zealots like Rubin a treasure trove of information. As he explains, two broad species of tells exist: those the player emits subconsciously and those used deliberately to mislead the opponent, what in common parlance are known as bluffs. “What I study are the autonomic responses when people pick up a hand,” Rubin says. Such signals include dilation of the pupils, increased breathing, perspiration, and other manifestations of anxiety.
The technique has correlates in other fields, notably law enforcement, where autonomic clues suggestive of deception are used in criminal interviews. In psychology, such non-verbal behavioral cues also may prove critical, as Rubin elaborates: “I use it every day in my clinical practice. You can tell if patients are distressed, if they’re being disingenuous, if they’re nervous,” he says.
At the highest levels of play, relentless intelligence gathering is the order of the day. “Every single round I want to pick up something on the players,” Rubin maintains. “The way they bet their chips, how they look at their cards—you never know when you’re going to detect something that’s going to come in handy.”
Rubin’s supreme attentiveness paid off in spades (or rather, in aces) at the 2006 World Series of Poker. “It was my very first World Series event. I was a little stressed going in there,” he remembers. In one of the late rounds, with tension mounting, Rubin found himself seated at a table with Jennifer Harman, one of the world’s top players.go to page: [ 1 | 2 ]