So I’ve now been using custom blue shark optic sunglasses on and off for about a year now…. And have enough data to actually come to a solid conclusion.
The best benefit of wearing sunglasses isn’t hiding tells. It’s preventing others from knowing when you are looking at them.
People change their behavior when they know they are being watched.
Moreover - it’s nice to close your eyes without anyone knowing you’re not paying attention.
It provides less strain over the course of the tournament because I don’t have to be constantly paying attention.
Although eye glasses can conceal tells - this is a double edged sword. Sometimes you can use those tells to your advantage.
For example: I was once playing a cash game where I was dealt QQ with about 100$ left in front of me (1/2$). Three bet preflop.
Raised on a dry flop and he called. River was K.
My eyes gave away that the K was a bad card for me - so the guy tried to
bluff me off the pot.
I didn’t budge (he was aggro loose). I put him on either two pair (worst case scenario unlikely given flop context and three bet pre flop) - or lower pair or air (AX non king - figured he would have reraised flop with AK).
If I had masked my tell - he would never have tried to bluff me. And I wouldn’t have won as many chips.
He even commented after the hand that he was positive I was going to fold.
(I give off nervous vibes with my eyes
)
My current rule with sunglasses: I’ll wear them for tournaments only.
