Phil Hellmuth Presents Read ‘Em and Reap
Phil Hellmuth Presents Read 'Em and Reap
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Product Description
very great player knows that success in poker is part luck, part math, and part subterfuge. While the math of poker has been refined over the past 20 years, the ability to read other players and keep your own "tells" in check has mostly been learned by trial and error.
But now, Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence officer specializing in nonverbal communication and behavior analysis—or, to put it simply, a man who can tell when someone's lying—offers foolproof techniques, illustrated with amazing examples from poker pro Phil Hellmuth, that will help you decode and interpret your opponents' body language and other silent tip-offs while concealing your own. You'll become a human lie detector, ready to call every bluff—and the most feared player in the room.
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Rating
If you are already a winning poker player then this book is great to add to your poker library. There is no actual “poker” how to’s but the information on tells is excellent. When I play live poker I have always tried to look for other peoples tells but was not really sure what was a tell. This book does a great job of letting you know what tells to look for and tells you how to decide if it is a tell or if it is just something that player does all the time. I am not a Phil Hellmuth fan at all but still think you should read this book.
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Joe Navarro’s book is truly an eye opening experience for any poker player, at least it should be. I am a seasoned tournament poker player. I read Joe’s book prior to a World Series of Poker Circuit Event and it helped me get to 33rd in a tournament of 573. If you read the book, which is an easy read, you will see exactly what he is talking about. Poker players have tells, whether they think they do or not and they are on display. Joe points them out in detail and they are easy to spot. One of my favorite and easy tells to spot is “Happy Feet” and I saw it at the tournament. A player had hit the full house and his legs started bouncing like crazy, he was screaming with his legs that he had the nuts. I cannot recommend this book enough, but then again, I hope you don’t read it so I can get the best of you at the next tournament. Again, I am a seasoned player and this single read helped me tremendously. He knows what he is talking about and it works. It’s not some system, it is real life and observing how people act and react. They give away their intentions, if you know what to look for. I do now. It’s definitely worth the read!
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Looks at tells from a different angle than Caro’s book.
I feel that after reading this book I have a much better understanding of tells and what they mean.
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If you’re serious about poker, then you need this book. It truly is a must have. If you want to add another dimension to your poker game, this is a great investment. “Two thumbs way up!”
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An excellent book, although, could do without Phil’s “validation” sidebars, which just usually says “yea this is right, it happened to me once when…” and then goes on to just repeat the text that Joe just went over. Move over Philly boy, and let Joe do the talking.
Also, you can check out Joe’s articles published in the monthly FBI magazine when he was an active agent. They are on FBI web site. You’ll have to do a little snooping about to find them, but they’re there.
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This is a fantastic and enlightening read. What this book does is take the whole psychology of tells to a new level – it explains not only what are a variety of physical tells, but also provides the basis and origin of the human response to both stimuli and anxiety that players experience while at the poker table. Explained from the insights of an FBI agent with 25 years of experience, I really got the sense that Joe Navarro knows what he is talking about with regard to observing and deciphering reactions and responses to situations.
Mike Caro’s “Book of Poker Tells” is still the classic from which so many poker players have become accustomed to many common tells, but this work doesn’t merely paraphrase those. It gives new insights into what to look for, head to toe. I found the explanations adequate and sensible. And there were plenty of pictures to illustrate what the author means by his explanations. All in all, when you think you have all the theory and math figured out, there is that psychological dimension that can put a player above the competition. This book will be a great start toward that…
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Well, trying to learn about all aspects of the game, I wanted to learn more about poker tells.
Of course I have seen Mike Caro’s book of poker tells, it is a good one but a bit aged, and I wanted something fresh. So when I came upon a pdf-copy of this one, I took a look. And it was so good that I didn’t hesitate a moment, I came in and ordered it right away…
This book is great! Joe Navarro gives his long time experience of how to read people and understand the way they react and why. The fine thing, about it, is that Joe Navaroo is a guy who gained the experience of reading people not in poker games, but in real life tough situations! It shows all around in the book. He just had to adjust his knowledge to the game, learn about the game and then put his “reading” abilities in work on the tables, to give us the results.
This is actually better than anything I have read about poker tells (and I have read a few stuff besides Mike Caro’s famous Book of Tells), cause it is right to the point, with lots of pictures showing exactly the faces and reactions of the people, that he describes in his book, right in the same page.
I mean, for a guy like me, coming from Greece and with fine, but not excellent, knowledge of English, this is so important! I can actually see the faces he talks about. And if you consider that I have been only a few times at poker tables (still consider myself a student of the game), only the fact that I can protect myself from being read (there is a whole chapter about that) is crusial!
In fact, I recommend to anyone to buy this book! It costs next to nothing and the first time you will be able to protect yourself from being read from another player (by following Joe’s advices), you will be paid back the money you spent about it! Period!
One more GOOD thing is that this book is not too big. I mean, let’s face it, the Super System had to be big and extensive, to live to its reputation, but this one HAD to be smaller! Who will spend his time reading a 500-page book on tells? I would prefer to use this time to read a book about poker instead. So this 200-page book is IDEAL in size, just as big as it had to be!
Phil Hellmuth’s contribution with his little stories is a good one, giving a break here and there with some stories from Poker tables, from his long experience.
I’ve got one last thing to say: Tells are vey important for real-life poker players, cause even the best of players, even proffesionals, can’t escape from giving tells to anyone who looks for them…
I have been watching “High Stakes Poker” a lot and I could spot tells on Daniel Negreanu, Sam Farha, Mike Matusow (this guy is really full of tells!), Jamie Gold etc…
But I can’t forget watching a specific episode: On the table, among others, was Guy Laliberte, a billionaire playing with some of the best pros. In one hand, he watches his hole cards and is rather uninterested, since they were nothing important. Then the flop comes and it hits big for him, a nut straight I think, I don’t remember it exactly but it was the absolut NUTS! Guy then gave an “anti-gravity tell” that it was so obvious, you could not ignore it in anyway! His face was calm and uninterested, his moves smooth, nothing else showed anything, but for anyone aware of anti-gravity tells, this one shouted out to the table: I’VE GOT THE NUTS!!!
Not everyone noticed it and a couple of players paid it with some serious cash!
If a High Stakes experienced player like Guy Laliberte (or Mike or Daniel etc) gives tells we can spot, then learning about tells is the next most important thing after learning the game itself!
And “Read ‘em and Reap” is the best tool around to do the job!
Hey, Joe, thanks from a reader of yours in distant Greece
Rating
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be a serious poker player. When you read this book and use the techniques that Joe teaches it will open up a whole new world for you at the poker table. This is a no brainer to buy and read from cover to cover the minute it shows up on your door step. Navarro puts science and real life experience together for one heck of a poker tells book. I would NOT recommend this book to your poker buddies as they could pick you apart with the information they gather from this book.
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I just finished a first pass through _Read ‘Em and Reap_. I’m sure I could write a better review after a few sessions of live play trying to use what I have learned, but I can always edit this one in the light of any significant results[1].
Too many books of this general type are fluffed up with a lot of rhetoric about why we should care about the subject; there’s only a little of that here, before the author dives right in. Navarro provides a good catalog of unconscious tells to look for, hints on how to distinguish those from acting, and a good method for sealing yourself off from broadcasting tells (hint: watch Hoyt Corkins play). I was pleased to see that he discusses how to put tells in context and doesn’t exaggerate their importance.
There isn’t going to be a magic bullet in this field, as people vary in their responses, not to mention acting ability and the curious phenomenon of unconscious acting. I was once in a hand with two players ahead of me, where I had picked up a pair of 9s with my 97 (No snide comments allowed: The Persian Carpet Ride is my favorite trash hand, and you have one, too.) The two other players were competing to see who could lean over the pot the furthest; I had not seen anyone at the table completely lose it like this before or since. Caro would say they were weak but acting strong; Navarro would say they were strong unless you could be sure they were acting. With a bet and a call ahead of me, I’d love to be able to say I correctly diagnosed what they were doing, which was trying to make something happen with a couple of mediocre overcard hands, and raised them back into their chairs. I didn’t, though; since I couldn’t decide which way they were leaning, so to speak, I got out of the way with my middling pair. I wouldn’t do that today.
I’m thinking that Navarro is absolutely right that spotting a subtle initial reaction is much better than trying to figure out what something dramatic like that really means.
Navarro carefully points out that stress-based tells are not going to be prominent in low-stakes games. I’m glad of that warning, as my current live game is fairly inexpensive and populated mostly by people who have reasonable poker faces. This means I face a real challenge in tell-spotting.
The book is lightly sprinkled with Phil Hellmuth’s anecdotes, but don’t let that keep you from buying it. A couple of them are new, relevant, and actually pretty funny.
I’m absolutely disgusted to see this book at #146 in sales; that means I have to completely memorize the material on minimizing my own tells, as I cannot assume that most people have not read this book. I got in on the poker boom late, and now this. Darn!
1. Ha! I now have major tells on two of the regulars in my local game, and that doesn’t count the others who are always going to fold or always going to call a big bet, so I know what and how to play against them even if they were invisible. So Navarro has helped; now if he just had a cure for the one guy who gets lucky every time no matter how badly he’s beat when the money goes in …
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In short, the book is intelligent yet quickly discernable and pictures examples to boot. Well put together and a great addition to the 21st century poker players library.
When compared to Caro’s book of poker tells I preferred the contemporized/well lit pictures that book featured vs Caro’s civil war era photos. Caro’s book was ground breaking at the time of it’s release but that time was 20 years ago. It has been replaced by “Read ‘em and Reap.” Navarro has written an excellent book that is well put together and logically constructed. Talking on and on about this book is warranted but counter-productive to trying to write a short review…
On a side note, “Read ‘em and reap” also features strain free type face fonts, which allowed me to read the book in two and a half hours. A lot of poker books use a serif typeface, to make it look more intelligent. However, it slows down reading speed and requires increased mental focus for a brain to process the words, feel free to research that statement. This book is easily digestible because of Navarro’s high aptitude for instruction, the type font used for the text and the motivation that stems from realizing the material in the book is golden.
And, oh yeah, the book is presented by Phil Hellmuth who has won 11 more WSOP bracelets than any other poker tells author. Pick up your copy today.
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I read this book less than two weeks time and entered three poker tournments three weeks later- result 1st tournment third place, 2nd tournment 1st and 3rd tournment 1st place. This book is amazing. Worth the money spent!!!
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I have read both this book and Caro’s book on tells. I have to say that I feel this book is much more informative. Sitting down at the poker table, I was immediately able to pick up subtle tells from the other players.
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After getting this (I am a Hellmuth fanactic) upon its release, I read it in like 20 mintues, as I consume poker literature at an incredible speed, during a point at which I was going to the card room twice a week, this book helped me identify these clear indications of someones emotions, as in how comfortable, how stressed, etc. This really only works I’d imagine at really low limits, b/c part of getting to that next level is making sure that you dont do this stuff. But even pros and people at final tables do things that a reader of this text could pick off. Par ex: Matusow on HSP S3 would literally stop talking mid-sentance if he picked up a big hand or hit a flop.
My favorite read that I picked up myself was at a 1/2NLHE home game that runs with some local businessmen. I called a guy with second pair in a huge pot, after he’d check min-raised the flop, which he had done with a set a couple orbits before (I flat called at this point) the turn was a brick, and he put me in. The dude was totally hugging himself (you’ll see)and had his feet giving the weak tell. I was able to pick up 300 in this spot thanks to the book, rather than relying on betting patterns or just evaluating the strength of my own hand (JT on a AJ64 board) Dude had 76o…THis books won me more big pots than I can count. Now if I can keep my bluffing % under 50% (75 while drunk) I’ll be ok
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Not quite finished with the book (although it is an exceedingly quick read) but I am well enough along to recognize the value in Joe’s lessons on limbic responses at the card table. Joe’s observations are categorized and rated according to strength. I feel like I have much more artillery in the observational arsenal.
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Great book, easy to read and understand. Navarro is FBI trained on reading people and their responses to stress. The entire book deals with Texas Hold’em. Other books I have read on this subject included reads from other type of poker games and confused issues concerning Texas Hold’em.
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This is one great poker book. I play a lot of poker and everything else I’ve ever read about poker tells (even by the famous Mike Caro) has been completely useless. This book paid for itself the first time I played poker after reading it. I now feel like a professional player able to make some great reads.
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I’ve read quite a few books on Poker. All the Harrington and Sklansky books, Feeney, Hellmuth, Gordon, and so on. And most have helped me improve my game.
This book has “turbo-charged” my game, both in cash games and tournaments. While most of the information applies better to a tournament where you have time to establish a baseline of your opponents behavior and then read them, I’ve found I’m getting better reads in cash games.
The material is presented well and the photos are good. And while Phil has his name on the cover, he didn’t write it; it’s all Joe.
I have played in 4-5 cash games and 3 tourneys since finishing the book and have cashed every time. While my technical game is strong, what I felt this book did for me was enable me to lose the minimum amount of money on hands where I am beat. And this is a key to being successful as a serious player…getting away from hands that can cripple your stack.
It certainly isn’t magic, but I did have a sense that I had a “secret weapon” in a tourney I played last week. Finished 7th out of a field of 100 or so and that was somewhat of a fluke as I got all my money in with a set of 10′s against KK only to have my opponent get runner-runner QJ for a straight. That was not the result of a good or bad read…I had the guy and he sucked out. But, in every hand prior to that, I felt I had a high certainty of what the other players had and was right in every instance where I could see their hand at the end.
All in all, this is a good book to add to the toolkit. By itself, it won’t change your poker world. Added with others and practice, it will definitely improve your game!
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I bought this book just before a trip I took to vegas last month and it paid for itself many times over. If you learn nothing from the book other than how to conceal your own tells you will come out a winner. For those of you who think they have no tells, believe me, you do. Joe Navaro was able to spot tells in players as difficult to read as chris fergusson. I’ve read tons of poker books and this by far is second only in terms of importance to ‘Theory of Poker’. And the only reason I put it second is because without a basic understanding of the game nothing else matters. But for those of you who know poker this book will teach you how to pick up on the body language and such of your opponents. Oh yeah. About my vegas trip. I would say this book accounted for about $1,000 of my winnings that weekend (Playing 1-3 NL). In several situations I was able to pick up tells that allowed me to make calls I normally wouldnt have and also to make plays with nothing based primarily on this book. Good luck!
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I just received this book and I could not put it down. I read the whole book in about 12 hours and I even took time to stop and watch poker on TV to see if I could notice anything…and I did, from top pro’s at that. This book was filled with great information that will produce instant results. I would love to talk it up more but I must head to the poker room to put my new knowledge to the test. I can’t wait to read it again.
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This is without a doubt a very eye opening look into the psychology of poker and deciphering poker tells.
The results for me after reading this book was almost instantaneous. After reading this book, I finished 3rd in a monthly poker league event where I had been knocked out early in two prior events. The book has allowed me to make some great laydowns and a couple of great calls based on the information I read in the book. But let me say to new players that this success comes with a warning. Poker tells and being able to spot them are only a portion of what you need to be successful in the game.
Poker tells are only a part of the story that will need to help you make a correct decision in a hand. Your cards, the flop, other players, poker math, position, betting patterns, and the tells described in this book ALL should be factored in to the decision that a player makes at the table. The very valuable things that a player will learn from this book are not the only things needed to win. Navarro makes a very important point in saying that after a long day at the tables, a player should be mentally exhausted. And if you are paying attention to all of the above, Navarro is 100% accurate.
This book will add a key weapon to a players arsenal. It is a good and easy read. The illustrations help to highlight what to look for and when to look for it. The information in this book has the potential to make a player go from break even to a plus player. This book contains that edge. For instance, Navarro asks in his book, “What is the most honest part of the body (when looking for a tell)?” My guess was way off. And I was surprised at the answer.
While I absolutely respect Phil Hellmuth’s game, he really earns the title of Poker Brat in this book. His parts in the book really amount to grandstanding about some of the great hands he has played throughout his career. And he will be sure to remind you that these hands were played during the biggest tournaments in the world. If you have followed Hellmuth, it’s acutally pretty funny to read his passages because you know how important it is for him to remind people that he is Phil Hellmuth, World Champion.
I honestly think that this is a book for players with at least some experience. Complete beginners should not worry themselves with this book right away because there are far more important things about the game that need to be learned first.
For the experienced players this book contains the information that could help take you to the next level. This book will help you complete the story of each hand and make the correct decision. It has worked well for me so far.
So in conclusion, don’t buy this book. In fact, I am going to take the money I make after having read this book, buy every copy available and burn them. I really don’t want to run into anyone on the table who has read this book.
Seriously, great book Mr. Navarro.
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I’m on my fourth way through this book and can’t get enough.
First off, this is not a Hellmuth book. Hellmuth chimes in every now and then but it’s primarily a Joe Navarro book. Joe goes through tell-after-tell and describes what you need to look for and how much value you should give what you’re observing at the table.
I’ve been playing the game for years and took a lot away from this book. In fact, it’s already helped with a couple of wins. Seriously.
There will be a few items in here that surprise you and other stuff you already know. But, all in all, you can’t go wrong purchasing this book. It’s full-up with excellent, excellent material.
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I read the book with great interest, could hardly put it down and could hardly wait till our next home game. However, it is a lot harder to read the players than the book suggests. It didnt help me at all but I think it has possibilities.
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Years ago, Mike Caro wrote a book called “The Book of Tells”. He later made this into a video – “Mike Caro’s Pro Poker Tells”. This video is an indespensible guide to understanding the mind of poker players and the tells that result. It is the “cake” for the icing provided by Joe Navarro’s “Read Em And Reap” which examines the tells caused by a player’s subconscious mind.
If someone is serious about studying tells, they should watch Caro’s video first and then read Navarro’s book. The information provided by Caro will help you on a day to day basis while Navarro’s book will be invaluable for high stress situations. You really need both for a complete understanding of tells.
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Mike Caro’s book was revolutionary since it was the first book that categorized all the tells from the poker table. I believe everybody should read Caro’s book first if you want to learn about tells, but this books teaches you on how to continue learning how to read tells.
Joe Navarro talks a lot about standard position, this is how people are in their normal state. You have to be observant on how people look like when they aren’t under any pressure or stress. Base on this knowledge you will then start trying to read this person on tells. In the end of the book Navarro teaches you how to improve your observation skills with some exercises.
Some reviews says that this is just a copy of Caro’s book. I don’t believe that’s true, you will find information here that you can’t find in Caro’s book.
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Navarro knows the subject of nonverbal behaviors (tells) very well. It has been his job to know what the other guy was going to do or what he is trying to hide for over 25 years. He knows all the tells and why we exhibit these tells. He gives you all this information in the book and even how to hide your own tells–well, at least conceal them enough to save you money.
He covers all the tells you will need to know from the face to the toes. The pictures in the book clearly demonstrate each of the tells discussed, which was very useful. Whether you like Hellmuth or not, he adds his 2 cents at the end of some of the chapters. These are actually not too bad and it’s only a brief page or two comment, so nothing to worry about for those who don’t like the poker brat.
The best parts of the book are his recommendations for hiding your own tells at the table and also detecting when people are trying to give off false tells. He also covers all the bases that might get a new person from making mistakes, like looking for stress type tells at a small limit game or confusing regular behaviors for revealing tells.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I don’t play a lot of live poker, but I thought I would enjoy the information coming from a former F.B.I. agent–I was correct, I did. Joe Navarro did an excellent job of introducing the reader to tells and explaining how the brain, along with our primal survival instincts, leads to these revealing nonverbal behaviors. The information can probably be taken off the poker tables and used in your daily life as well. It’s never a bad thing to know when someone is hiding something or trying to be deceptive.
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This is a fascinating book, with lots of photos of expressions, gestures and behaviours that give away the strength of a hand or the intent to raise or fold. At one point, I caught myself doing at tell just as I was reading about it! There is an amazing story where Phil Hellmuth made an astounding fold because he saw his opponent’s eyes dilate when the turn card hit and knew it helped him. And beyond just recognizing tells, Joe Navarro, a long time FBI behavioural analyst, explains the psychology behind them and why it’s so hard to hide all tells. Then he gives his own strategies for minimizing your own tells, while picking up more on others. I’d hate to be across a poker table from either of these two!
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this book explained in detail exactly what I wanted to know about reading people’s body language at the poker table.
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This is the book that you need to learn how to read your opponents. While Mike Caro’s book of tells is the better known volume on this subject, I cannot stress enough that you should skip Caro’s and read this one. Not a Hellmuth fan? Dont worry, aside from a short intro, he’s not really featured in the book much.
This book paid for itself and then some within a weekend. You should buy it.
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Being able to read other player’s body language is very important in poker. Until recently, Mike Caro’s book was the only book available on the subject. Now there are numerous books on poker tells, and this book is by far and away the best of the bunch. The book is very detailed and describes a lot of different tells. The book also expalins which tells are more useful, and how different tells put together can give one a better read on one’s foe. It has a lot of unique tells not featured in other books. It also tells the reader how to disguise one’s own tells, which is also very important. The book could have used some charts to summarize the information better, and it could also have had some practice examples to help one put the tells to good use. Finally, the book did have some tells that are sort of obvious, but its better to be safe than sorry. Besides these defects, the book was very helpful and informative. It took Mike Caro’s book to a whole new level. I recommend it to anyone serious about poker, especially tournament no-limit.
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I got this book thinking that it was just going to be a reprint of Caro’s book of tells. I was pleasantly surprised when i started reading it and found a lot of new and interesting info. It’s an easy read (no pun intended) and has definitely improved my game against my opponents who are unaware of their tells. I am now able to see the other people who watch for tells and read their “false” tells also! An excellent companion to strategy is being able to read your opponent. I have already made way more than this book cost me by using the info it gave me. 5 STARS