Serious prodder confronted (5-5)

I believe the answer is:

poker-faced

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'serious' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'prodder confronted' is the wordplay.
'prodder' becomes 'poker' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'confronted' becomes 'faced' ('face' can be a synonym of 'confront').
'poker'+'faced'='POKER-FACED'

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(Other definitions for poker-faced that I've seen before include "perfect air for 23 [STUD]" , "Giving nothing away?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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