Product Description

Mike Caro's classic book is now revised and back in print! This long-awaited brand new edition by the Mad Genius of Poker takes a detailed look at the art and science of tells, the physical giveaways by players on their hands. Featuring photos of poker players in action along with Caro's explanations about when players are bluffing and when they're not, these powerful eye-opening ideas can give you the decisive edge at the table! This invaluable book should be in every player's library! The powerful and groundbreaking book on the art and science of tells, the body language of poker, shows how players can use their opponents' gestures, words, and body language to win all their money!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48159 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Mike Caro, the "Mad Genius of Poker", is the world's foremost authority on poker strategy, psychology and statistics, and the author of 10 privately sold books and advanced strategies on poker.

Customer Reviews

An excellent book on poker psychology and body language.
This book weighs in at 320 pages and you immediately realise that the author has put alot into it.
The obligatory summary chapters are there along with a short quiz, but this only amounts to the last 40 pages. The remaining pages are devoted to in depth analysis of poker psychology and body language.
The majority of the book is broadly divided up into tells from those who are unaware, and tells from 'actors'. These chapters are then subdivided into numerous short sections on such topics as nervousness, sudden interest, instant reaction etc. For each of these sections a number of tells are discussed and these are set out in pretty much the same format:
An overview of the tell is given usually over about two pages, and then details of the tell are set out as follows:
Title:
Category: i.e. nervousness etc.
Description: what to look for.
Motivation: why they are doing it
Reliability: how likely you are to be able to spot the tell depending on the quality of opposition
Value per hour: here the author tries to give the tell a monetary value depending on whether you recognise it and the limits you are playing
Discussion: additional info.
The description is often accompanied by a number of photgraphs that help to reinforce the idea in the readers mind. The author uses a number of poker variations in his discussions and despite being only a holdem player i could follow these easily.
There are 179 photographs and 58 tells in this book and along with the authors excellent writing style, this book would still be excellent value for money at twice the price.

Still a classic, despite outdated views on minority playing
This book started as something of a cult classic, but has exploded in popularity in the past few years, and I'm glad I picked it up, even while the author's writing style left much to be desired as far as sensitivity to cultural diveristy. It's hard not to be offended by some of his generalizations about how various races and each sex play cards. Nonetheless, he's got some very good information about body language and how it reveals the strength of your opponents' hands. It's scary accurate at times, because so much of it is completely involuntary on our part. Leaning forward, leaning back, stacking chips -- these are all actions we don't really think about when we're doing them, but they all mean something (some more than others). And Caro does an outstanding job of explaining just how reliable each "tell" is.

I also would have liked a chapter on online play, because there ARE tells to pick up there, even if they're not body language or verbal cues. How long does someone take to bet? To check? Use of the auto-action buttons? It's an area very ripe for analysis by the right author, especially because online play absolutely dwarfs the number of hands dealt in cardrooms across this country. I only recently started playing online, but was grateful for another post here that led me to pokercroaker.com, which had sign-up bonus codes and site reviews for all the major sites. Good tip. Anyway, despite my mild criticism of Caro's writing style regarding minorities, I still think this is a very good book, and worth a read, if for no other reason than many of your opponents will have read it, so you'll know what they're looking for in your behavior.

Buy it!
If you play live games and you don't know about tells, buy this book... It's that simple. There are lots of basic tells which will help you without doubt. This is the only book dedicated to it and therefore should be in every poker playuers library of books.

I have to say, however, that it is repetitive; the same tells are dressed up and duplicated in different sections. The whole book could have been squeezed into about a 1/3 of the space.

It's quite an old book but tells are tells, they will always be there.

BUY THIS BOOK!