😐 poker face
Concrete Meaning
An impassive, blank facial expression that hides one's true feelings, thoughts, or intentions.
💬 Context & Examples
Used during negotiations, interviews, or tense situations where showing emotion could put you at a disadvantage.
- "Even though she was furious about the insulting lowball offer, she maintained a perfect poker face."
- "You need to work on your poker face if you want to be a successful negotiator."
🧠 Pattern Challenge
Test Yourself
Why is having a blank expression essential when playing the card game poker?
Show Answer
Because if you smile when you get good cards or frown when you get bad ones, other players will know exactly what you hold. Metaphorically, it means hiding your internal state to protect your strategic position.
🎬 Narrative & Case Study Applications
- Georg Simmel's Tragedy of Culture — Epitomizes the protective intellectual armor and the blasé attitude (Die Blasiertheit) analyzed in The Metropolis and Mental Life, wherein the metropolitan subject maintains an impassive, unreadable poker face to insulate the vulnerable emotional core (Gemüt) against relentless sensory overstimulation and anonymous crowds.
- Henry James (1843—1916) — Captures the defensive armor of James's transatlantic aristocrats and calculating expatriates, such as Gilbert Osmond in The Portrait of a Lady and Charlotte Stant in The Golden Bowl, who maintain an impenetrable social poker face to conceal illicit passions, financial desperation, and predatory domestic tyranny behind smooth, unruffled civility.