Yeah I suggest you get that if your at the point where you focus on tells. Its called Read'em and Reap. Its not so much watching for poker actors as it is looking for microgestures. It goes way beyond weak means strong. Since reading it, this week I played 3 live 2 table sit n' goes. Results; 2nd, 1st, and 2nd. IT WORKS!

Keep hearing good things about this book, will have to get it now.

Yea i hear this book is sopossed to be awsome

Also thanks to the book I was able to pick up on a low confidence gesture my opponent made after making a $50 buff at a pot with $100 in it already. I had medium pair, knew he was weak, the board was scary so I reraised him and he folded.

As long as all that data took to collect, believe it or not, some people may still be skeptical. In fact, a lot of people may think three S&G cashes are pretty meaningless. Not me, though.

And-but-still, the book is very good for what it is.

this guy is awesome. I'm soon going to read it.

I just bought a used copy today. I'm hoping it is good as everyone says it is.

It's an excellent book. One word of warning though. It's difficult to put into practice. Not because the info is hard to grasp/remember. If you're not accustomed to careful observation it's a difficult habit to pick up. I find myself able to observe carefully for only a few minutes and then I forget to continue (it's not yet a habit for me). Certainly worth the price of admission though and if you get good at it I suspect it can really revolutionize your game.

SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Tell them the truth, the book sucks and no one should read it .... NO ONE!

Yah this is on my list but I'm readin Caro's first just cuz I'm old school like that heh.
I wonder how easy it might be to do these tells intentionally. /laughs maniaclly

I just finished Navaro's book last night. It was excellent. Very reasonable suggestions and explanations which you can put to use immediately. Of course, you'll need to practice, but the concepts are easy to remember and you'll notice some tells and probably say 'duh' right off the top.

As compared to Caro's book of Poker Tells, I think Caro is a much better writer. But, both books are excellent reads. Both are 'must reads' for live players. And, both are fun reads for casual hobbyists even if you only play online.

-M

reading this on my train ride into work..very interesting...

i noticed a text-book tell at a home game when an A flopped..i got so giddy i saw the obvious tell, i stopped watching him...the 3rd card on the flop completed his set...i wonder if i woulda spotted extreme strength when it hit...

when Phil hellmuth puts his name on something its safe to say its junk ~ HOWEVER in this cause I will say sorry phil ~ .
an amazing product this book is soo good i might spend 129$ on the video !!!

God Damit!

The book is crap and NO ONE SHOULD READ IT! In fact, I believe all copies should be burned so people won't waste their time with such drivel.

QFT.

Except, I want to keep my copy.

It's a good book. A lot of the text is superfluous, especially Hellmuth's little essays on his greatness, but the photographs and description of the tells are great. It crushes Caro's Book of Tells.

I find this little spiel on page 105 to be comic.

Fig. 39. [Standing player has AK. Sitting player has QQ. Flop is Q3K.]

Some players will leap up with positive excitement when they see a good card that can help them turn their hand into a winner. Why, then, is this player standing? Did you note he was losing the hand from what you can observe in the picture? If you did, then you're already developing the observational skills necessary to read 'em and reap! (Many readers will just glance at the photo and not notice the discrepancy between what they're seeing and how the player is behaving. We hope you did!) What the picture doesn't show is the turn card, a king, which the dealer has just placed face-up beyond the border of the photo but easily spotted by the excited player. He is standing up, excited by the realization that he now holds trip kings against his opponent's three queens.

So after a nice little patronizing passage about how we too can be observant, Navarro fails to note the sitting player's full house.

A few months ago, this observation was sent to Navarro Poker and this was their reply:

Thank you for the time, and your excellent observation, to make the comment concerning the photo on p. 105. Of course, you are correct: when a king hits on fourth street it does make a full house for Joe's opponent (seated). However, please consider the hand in its total context. After the flop, Joe has basically three long-shot ways to win the hand: he can hit a straight with a runner-runner jack/ten, he can hit trip aces with runner-runner A,A or he can hit quads with a runner-runner king, king. This assumes, of course, that the opponent doesn't improve. If two blanks fall on fourth and fifth street, Joe's two kings will lose to his opponent's three queens. Now, when the king hits on fourth street it does give his opponent a full house, BUT it gives Joe more outs to win the hand on the river card. With three kings, he now can win with any ace (three outs) a king (one out) or a trey (three outs). He is excited because, even though the king flopping on fourth street has not put him ahead at this point in the hand, his OVERALL chances to win the hand have been dramatically increased with the river card still to come. This is why he is excited, and this is the reason he is now standing up.

We will be clarifying this caption in the next printing of the book.

I was going to buy this book until I read the last two posts.

I'll read it again, but, I was disappointed in it the first time through.

Well I just ordered this book. I am expecting some good information and to be a little dissapointed at the same time. I shall let you all know.

I thought this book was so good that I would double post! The information in the book is clearly layed out and of course isnt going to say things like "If the guy scratches his head, he has a 72 you insta-call" but the psychology and theory is pretty solid. I would recommend this book to pretty much everyone and think it is a must have. I am impressed and wasn't dissapointed at all.
9/10 for me.

Looks like someone can't hide their tells and wants to try and stop people from noticing them

I read this book on the way to Reno and tried to implement the "don't give anything away" aspect, but I really had difficulty seeing the obvious tells of my opponents. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, but I very rarely saw anything close to what the photos portray.

LOL ... ya, you got me pegged, I'm nothing but a jiggling overflowing bunch o' tells!

at least you're consistant, if you always jiggle they'll never spot when you have a monster

I ordered this book last week but it hasn't arrived yet.


It was hard for me to pull the trigger when I saw Phil Hellmuth's picture on the book. Eventually my curiosity about tells won out over my disdain for PH.


I look forward to reading this.

Having just read Caro's Book of Tells, and now in the process of reading this one, I have to agree that it is significantly better. Caro explains that a certain action means strength or weakness, a brief description of what it means, and what action to take when you see it. This is useful, yes, but reads more like a rule book, and can be a bit shallow at times. And some of the mentioned tells are downright useless, such as the ones about people reaching chips into the pot before it's their turn, smoking, and several others that just don't happen in real life anymore.

Navarro's book goes so much farther. It not only clues you on to just about every unconscious gesture that someone might give off while at the table, it fully explains why that action happens. It's a whole different mindset that this book puts you in... it encourages you not only to look for the tells, but also to understand the motivation behind the specific tells, and how to truly decipher what it means in context. There are whole sections that Caro didn't even mention, such as the one on the most honest part of the body, and the bonus info on getting in the proper mindset for detecting tells, and an overall mindset to understand the actions in everyday life, is just bonus. I think this book has almost everything. Vastly superior to the old tell books, IMO, and definitely worth the money. The only bad part is that Hellmuth still hasn't learned to write without stroking his ego. He does add some key points, but the traditional "look at me" attitude is still there. Forget that Phil's name is on it... Joe Navarro is the guy you need to listen to.

does it explain if the tell of "cutting the cheese" at the table is a sign of strenght or weakness?

the only thing that tells you is that you are giving them the sh*ts

I read the book and it has a lot of very useful info.


Someone really really really needs to make a Reap Re-Dux book.

I read it and was just in Vegas for a few days and found myself paying more attention to my opponents at the table and less to the sportscenter on the tv screens during hands I was not in and made a few moves later on the "old" me wouldn't have tried and picked off a few choice pots.

I fell victim to laying down in a big multiway pot based on "tells" and then realized the error after the hand when all the cards were shown down. I had no idea on how bad both players were and they were extremely confident in weak hands, thinking that they surely had the nuts.

Well worth the $19 or so, and a good read.

Tom.