Reading Poker Tells

By: Zachary Elwood

Narrated by: Zachary Elwood

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

This is not your average tells! great Read!

Makes you realize that there's more to just playing strategic poker. Just by paying attention to your opponents and seeing the subtle tells can improve your game!

Best book on tells since Caro.

Thanks for a great audible. I agree almost every word. I have to say though, I cannot relate to the end where Harrington's volume two for cash games is reviewed, I only made it to volume 1 cash games. I read Harrington's tournament series and book 2 is by far the best. I even have the cover taped back on because it'd been opened so many times. I think I may give this book re-read during my next live tourney. Something to zone in with. . .

Best book for live tells!

This is the greatest book on tells since Mike Caro. But where Caro left off, Elwood picks up. Elwood applies situational tell reading. Shows you how to use those tells at the table. Can’t wait to put it to practice.

Finally! It all started to make sense!!

If you could sum up Reading Poker Tells in three words, what would they be?

READ THIS BOOK!! or MY LIGHTBULB EXPLODED!

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

I finally began to understand all the things I was seeing at the poker table, but didn't know what they meant. I had been looking at and for the wrong things and not paying attention to the things that matter.

Any additional comments?

If poker tells is where your game is weak. Then this is the second book you need to read right after Mike Caro's book of tells. The author references the book several times and it will help to understand those references. Then... READ THIS BOOK!! All those little nuances that I saw happening at the table now speak volumes to me. I will buy his next book he is currently working on involving Verbal Tells.

Solid book, definitely recommend

Honest take, examples on how to implement strategies provided. Solid and listen. Very nice job

One of 2 books that have changed my game

if you are a player with strong fundamentals and have learned all the nuances about the game this book and Jared Tindler's the mental game of poker; will allow you to take that knowledge and start making money in the ever increasing challenging player pool.

gets you thinking..

was able to finish it in less than a week during my commute to work

I'm a Better Player Now

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:

1) I’m now better at observing the behavior of others.
2) I’m now better at observing my own behavior.

On observing others…
I took more account of the activity around me. Especially after folding, I started truly observing and making informed predictions of the strength/weakness of remaining players’ hands. 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. For example:

-Early in a round, with a weak hand, I started feigning nonchalance and stopped being so obviously fixated on my opponents’ betting actions. 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.

-Early in a round, with a strong hand, I feigned interest in my opponents' bets. 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: instead of focusing on the tells of others, there was runway to ask the reader to reflect on himself and his own actions and determine what to adjust. Perhaps it’s implied. Perhaps it lives in Elwood’s other book. Or perhaps Elwood will present new material: “Now that you know what they’re doing, here’s what you need to stop/start doing.”

On the narration:
Elwood’s tone and style is quite flat. One could argue that a more skilled narrator could really add some needed spice. However, this isn’t Shakespeare; it’s poker. Ultimately, Elwood’s matter-of-fact style really lent itself well to his credibility. The subtext of every sentence says: “Hey, none of this stuff is really groundbreaking. It’s pretty logical and intuitive, you just have to notice it.” That’s a good angle for a book like this. Furthermore, Elwood made it impossible to forget the chief point of the book: account for an opponent’s previous behavior before determining their tells.

My one last piece of advice might not be feasible. I’d like a cheat sheet. This is an audible book with a tone of reference material. I took careful notes, but access to a downloadable summary would be a really nice addition. This is a general challenge with audio books, so I don’t fault Elwood one bit.

I can’t wait to listen to Elwood’s other book. Meanwhile, I remain very grateful for this read and I’m confident that any player can take something from it.

This and his other book, verbal poker tells, are great.

Great books. Loaded with solid information. They pay for themselves. Also the author reads them, which is normally a better experience for the listener.

Helpful but a bit uncertain.

A lot of these tells were very insightful and I believe can help. However, the author admits and maybe stress is too much that tells are not always applicable a high percent of the time, so these are good, but only time will tell.