Contents:
Ellwood covers his subject clearly and thoroughly, and his book is well-organized and easy for a player of any ability level to follow.
A former professional poker player, he draws his conclusions from his own experience at the table and from studying academic research on human psychology and emotion. One of the great strengths of his book is that he explains the psychology behind specific types of behavior and also the ways in which that psychology manifests itself in observable tells. This provides readers with both very specific and practical things to look for and a framework for interpreting other behaviors not explicitly covered in the book — Ellwood is good about acknowledging the limits of what can be learned from a book.
To his credit, Ellwood consistently cites Caro and explains where and why the two authors differ. His primary advantage is that he is most familiar with what actually happens in contemporary poker games. The book was written relatively early in the poker explosion and shows its wrinkles, although much of the material is still relevant and useful to beginners.
Navarro's unique approach in Read 'em and Reap: Unlike Caro's findings, Navarro's are based on scientific research.
If you're curious, Google " Paul Ekman " and follow the trail that emerges. Ekman is a distinguished psychologist who did much of the early work on how human emotions are expressed. But, and this is the real topic of this article, it is only by integrating Caro's and Navarro's approaches that we can appreciate the real science of tells. Caro's approach was developed through his years doing battle with some of the toughest opponents in the game. It is knowledge that came from personal experience.
As a result, it's difficult for beginners and even fairly experienced players to grasp what he is talking about. The last time I saw it it was useless; the guy had a tremor that popped up whenever he felt stressed - which was anytime he put more than two BBs into a pot! Navarro's content is based on data collected from experiments on the patterns of reactions through which human beings express emotions and the ways in which experienced individuals come to learn to read those patterns.
In it, he argued that people will go out of their way to not tell a lie, even when telling a lie would seem to be very easy to accomplish and very beneficial to them. What poker footage did you use and how was it selected? The main value will be in seeing real-life situations and behaviors, which can be much more memorable and instructive compared to written descriptions. Most Helpful Most Recent. Which common poker tells deserve your attention?
These studies showed that well-trained individuals in agencies like the FBI and the Secret Service could spot suspicious activity better than ordinary folks. They were adept at picking up on patterns of behavior, speech and movement. Intriguingly, they typically did not consciously know what these patterns were; they only had a vague sense that "something's not right here. What Navarro is doing is trying to get the average poker player to hone his or her intuitive skills, to pay attention to the right cues in the poker world and learn to divine which ones are reliable.
But acquiring this skill isn't simple; it takes time. Ironically, it takes the kind of experience Mike Caro had that led him to write his book. The first thing to accept is that most tells are not picked up consciously. It is rare for a player to look at his opponent and know from some gesture, some movement that he is bluffing.
I spotted one once. It was so bizarre I thought it was phony. This guy bet with his right hand, except when he was bluffing, when he bet with his left!
I only played with him a couple of hours so I never got to find out if it was a setup to trap someone like me or whether it was real, but in years and years of play, I haven't seen anything like it again. There are a few well-known tells for stressful situations. One is the upward glance or the look at something irrelevant. You'll see it when a player has made a big bet and now has to wait for his opponent to decide what to do.
He'll get nervous and, unable to hold a Hellmuthian or Fergusonian pose for long, he'll look at the ceiling, the TV, switch his gaze to a waitress walking past or even look briefly at his watch. Most importantly, this is a sign of high emotion and you can't know precisely whether your opponent is aroused because he's bluffing or because he's sitting on a monster. It's just like the so-called "lie detector" or "polygraph.
The typical tell is complex and psychologically interesting. It is usually picked up subconsciously, intuitively and is based on the detection of patterns of behavior, action, speech and - most importantly - of betting. We all have consistent manners of action, particular ways in which we function in particular situations. These are the marks, the revelations that a good poker player uses. Tells are rarely specific; they are general, broad patterns of function.
The most common tell of a big hand is not some idealized way of sitting or a specific tone of voice. It is the way a particular individual tends to sit or a tone of voice they adopt when they have a huge hand or are bluffing. One player may have a forward-leaning posture; someone else may tend to sit back casually. To detect and read these tells correctly is not easy, and there is no magic bullet here.
It requires practice and experience - in the game in general and with this particular player. Have you ever wondered why top pros like to ask players - particularly less-experienced amateurs - what their hand is? He'll run through several possible hands he thinks his opponent might have. He's looking to see if there is any change in demeanor or "twitch" when he mentions a particular candidate hand. Concepts include 3betting, 4betting, cbetting, barreling, GTO vs. Tournament poker is a tough game to play, but the rewards for success can be huge.
Even regular online tournaments offer substantial prizes running to hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you want to win big at the tables, then you must buy this book. In Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker: Book 1 you will learn the fundamentals of play and how to handle varying stack sizes. Excelling at No-Limit Hold'em is a sensation in poker publishing.
Renowned poker professional and author Jonathan Little brings together 17 of the greatest no-limit experts in the world to discuss all aspects of the game. This book takes questions ranging from "How can I use my table image to my advantage? Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 dealt with the fundamentals of play. Volume 2 builds on this base and examines the highly complex issue of how to handle the different stages of a tournament.
At times the best strategy is to play loose, create problems for your opponent and thus keep accumulating chips. At other times an ultra-tight strategy will be the most profitable. Understanding when to "change gears" is a highly developed skill that requires a great deal of study and experience.
In this guide, two-time World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Little explains numerous strategies he uses that will allow you to crush your opponents, giving you the opportunity to progress to the middle and high stakes. There is a lot of money to be made at small-stakes no-limit hold'em because However, few players understand exactly how to exploit these games. Competent players who generally play larger stakes will, of course, beat them.
But they won't beat them for nearly as much as they ought to. Because they don't understand how to adjust correctly. Millions of dollars change hands thanks to the game each year, and if you want to earn your share, then you are going to need to understand the math that goes into the game to ensure you can formulate a solid plan of action moving forward. To ensure you have the tools, you need this audiobook. Take your poker game to the next level with Poker Math! Are you new to poker? Have you been playing for a while? No matter if you're a beginner or if you've been at the tables for months now, you can take your game to the next level with poker math.
It's not as difficult it seems. Once you learn these simple calculations, you'll be ready to dominate the competition and pile up more money. Using easy to understand language, this book is straightforward and to the point. No fluff, just pure poker knowledge.
It's no secret that masters of poker think differently than ordinary people. In this truly groundbreaking audiobook, Haseeb Qureshi, retired world-class high stakes poker pro and instructor, takes you on a journey of rediscovering the game of poker from the inside out. He explores the depths of strategy, psychology, and philosophy within poker, and teaches you his uniquely scientific perspective on approaching the game.
Each and every poker player featured in The Pursuit of Poker Success has taken his or her own route to becoming one of the world's best players. The players interviewed for this audiobook include World Series of Poker bracelet winners, World Poker Tour champions, online poker wizards, and some of the best cash game players on the planet.
Bradley spoke to each player about the way in which he or she found success in a game that can be humbling for so many. What worked for them can work for you.
Reading Poker Tells is being called the best book about poker tells by many players, both amateur and professional. Besides cataloging the most common poker-related behavioral patterns, the audiobook gives a mental framework for analyzing and remembering poker tells. I immediately put this advice into practice, which allowed me to take 2nd place in a NL tournament last weekend. I owe two big playing improvements to this book: On observing others… I took more account of the activity around me. Aside from the occasional surprise river-made hand, the results were well-aligned with my predictions.
On my own behavior… This book helped me understand how much information I was regularly giving away to others. To combat this, I made some needed adjustments and saw immediate results. Then later in that round, still with a weak hand and bluffing, I took more time to bet, call or raise, and I increased the level of eye contact with opponents in order to demonstrate confidence.
Later in the round, if I had the nuts, I avoided eye contact or any sign of hand confidence. And then I walked home with cash. Taking these classic tells, and reverse engineering them for my own performance, made all the difference. Here lies one of the few suggestions I have for this book: Or perhaps Elwood will present new material: One could argue that a more skilled narrator could really add some needed spice.