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Reading Poker Tells

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Reading Poker Tells

By: Zachary Elwood
Narrated by: Zachary Elwood
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About this listen

The first book in Zachary Elwood's acclaimed poker tells trilogy, Reading Poker Tells will teach you how a professional poker player analyzes the facial expressions, body posture, physical gestures, and verbal statements of their opponents. Besides cataloging the meaning of the most common poker tells, this book gives a mental framework for thinking about and remembering tells. It also contains information on general poker psychology, methods of manipulating opponents, and methods for becoming unreadable.

Since its release in 2012, this book has been widely recognized by many poker players, both amateur and experienced, as being one of the best works on the subject. Zachary Elwood's poker tells site is at readingpokertells.com.

©2012 Zachary Elwood (P)2013 Zachary Elwood Poker Psychology Psychology & Mental Health

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All stars
Most relevant
Good review on the side of poker where not many books give a decent insight!

Interesting Audio, recommended!

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As far as I can find (please tell me if I'm wrong) only Elwood and Caro have anything really practical to say about reading live poker tells. Elwood is more focussed on NL Holdem and is more up to date but most of what he says validates Caro principles. Real live poker players will scoff at some of the rubbish turned out by most so-called body language experts (ex-FBI agents in particular). Lying in poker is most definitely NOT the same as lying in real life. It is part of the game and the consequence of being caught out are more likely to be commiseration or guarded admiration than admonishment or prison. This makes a big difference to how a person behaves at the poker table vs real life.

This is a well structured book and Elwood uses real examples to demonstrate his points that clearly come from his experience as a professional poker player. Some of his comments in the appendices will ring true with a lot of live players that are not compulsive gamblers and play for the skill, stamina and concentration involved. Personally I try and avoid cash games for fear that I am taking money from weak individuals for whom gambling is an illness and poker a placebo. Its comforting to think that some pros feel the same way too.

Elwood also makes the point that there are no cast iron rules and this is not an easy checklist that will turn you into the Darren Brown of poker. It takes a lot of concentration and experience and noting behaviour patterns is hard when you are also thinking about your own strategy/table image as well as hand-ranges and percentages.

Compulsory for live NLH poker players

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Not much is written in the field of Poker tells Zachary Elwood not only tells you the common poker tells to be on the Look out for but he also devises a logical framework so organise them. this information is logical and it's probably things that you notice in your own play but there's enough here to make it worth a purchase. One piece of information in this audiobook recontextualized the way I think about that specific tell. If I was an active live player I'm sure it would be worth its weight in gold but even as a hobbyist it's still a very interesting listen and something that you can take with you, I also like the fact that the audiobook is not so long zachary isn't wasting any time and he's really getting to the meat and potatoes which I appreciate. Also we should appreciate zachary's honesty pokertells are not a panacea but if you're interested in poker then this is hidden knowledge worth listening to.

One of the best books on the subject

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Very short, not enough detail or explanation. Could have talked about hands in an actual game more.

not worth it

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