How to Keep a Straight Face

Keeping a straight face is a skill. Like any skill, it can be trained and improved with practice. Whether you're at a poker table, in a serious meeting, or taking the Poker Face Test, these 10 techniques will help you maintain emotional neutrality.

1. Control your breathing

Slow, deep breaths activate your parasympathetic nervous system, reducing involuntary emotional responses. Breathe in for 4 counts, out for 4 counts before and during stressful moments.

2. Relax your jaw

Most people tense their jaw when suppressing laughter or emotion. Consciously relax your jaw muscles and keep your mouth slightly open.

3. Focus on a neutral point

Pick a fixed point in the room and stare at it. This redirects your brain's attention away from the emotional trigger.

4. Bite the inside of your cheek

A mild physical sensation can interrupt the emotional response before it reaches your face. Don't bite hard — just enough to redirect focus.

5. Think of something boring

Mentally recite something dull — a shopping list, a phone number, multiplication tables. This occupies the part of your brain that processes emotion.

6. Avoid eye contact during funny moments

Eye contact amplifies emotional contagion. If something is making you laugh, look away from the source.

7. Practice regularly

The more you expose yourself to emotional triggers and practice suppressing reactions, the better you get. Use our Poker Face Test to practice daily.

8. Slow blink

A slow deliberate blink resets your facial expression and buys you a second to regain composure.

9. Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth

This physically prevents the smile muscles from activating.

10. Train with AI

The most modern approach: use AI-powered facial detection to get real-time feedback on your neutrality score. That's exactly what our Poker Face Test does — scoring your poker face across 10 rounds of challenging images.