The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker [Paperback]

Matt Lessinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2005

An expert poker player and columnist for "Card Player" magazine shows how players at every level of the game can master the art of the bluff.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

MATT LESSINGER lives in Alamo, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1ST edition (October 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446695629
• ISBN-13: 978-0446695626
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Book Can Only Cost You Money!, February 9, 2006

By 

Poker Pro "Always Learning" (New York) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker (Paperback)

This book is pretty badly flawed: it suffers from a lack of organization, content, and focus. There are no more than forty or so sample bluffs analyzed for the reader, and almost half of them are for Omaha or 7-card Stud (and very specific to the format of those games). So right off the bat those who have a greater interest in hold em are moderately short-changed. However, what really turned me off this book is that the last 100 pages are devoted to showcasing longshot bluffs that will never work in the real world, and to discussing a handful of famous WSOP bluffs which are similarly unrealistic. So basically there's only 100 some-odd pages of actual content here; and of that, almost all of it falls into the category of either obvious (attack an opponent who doesn't seem to like his/her hand) or far too specific (i.e. here's a great play that will rarely come up).

What's sad is that the most useful advice offered here comes from Chris Moneymaker, of all people (maybe because he's got more of an everyman's perspective on the game). In a brief cameo interview tacked on at the end of the book, he counsels readers to bluff when a turn or river card is scary compared to the hand you think your opponent has. Voila! This is as clear and useful as anything else the book has to say on the subject, and is probably more than enough for real-world players.

Why I have to give the book two stars is that I'm afraid people who read "How to Bluff" will come away with the idea that they can bluff their way out of any horrible situation they put themselves into. Lessinger focuses way too much on bluffs that simply will not work in real-world play (at least at low or moderate limits), especially online. He even includes an example where a player folded pocket aces that flopped a set because the other guy in a three-handed game represented a straight that required him to have exactly JQ and to have made his hand with a gutshot draw on the turn; does anyone else think that this will NEVER work? Online players are simply not going to fold the second-best possible hand (and sometimes not even the second-worst hand, it would seem), no matter how convincingly you represent the nuts. Honestly, I couldn't fold a set of aces to the possibility of someone having made a gutshot draw against me in probably any circumstance, and neither will your other opponents. There may be a place for longshot bluffs and hail mary plays to be featured in any strategic text; that place should not be from pp. 82 to 220 inclusive.

The whole tone of the book seems to suggest that players don't bluff enough; I just have to wonder if Lessinger is living in the 1980s or something. Players today do not need a book on how to bluff: they need someone to talk them down from that ledge. Lessinger would have done better by his readers to put out a title called "Betting for Value: Cashing in on Modern Player's Absurd Bluffing." That would have been a far more interesting, practical, and profitable read.

I'd recommend The Poker Tournament Formula and Poker Tips that Pay: Expert Strategy Guide for Winning No Limit Texas Hold em for readers that are looking for a more balanced hand-by-hand approach to improving one's poker game.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read This Review If You Play Online!!!!, June 4, 2006

By 

Zachary Wills Delkus - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker (Paperback)

This book is really informative, it outlines some good ideas and some good strategys. 1st things 1st, this book is cheap and worth the money and the read.

The Book focuses on examples for the bulk of the text. The remainder is the authors insight (which proves to be informative).

Heres a couple of things to know about this book before purchasing it:

1.) It focuses a lot on Limit hold em, the author is mostly using Limit in his examples. Some are NL and some have a paragraph dedicated to "If this were NL".

2.) The author focuses on "higher" limit games (in my opinion). To me 5/10 NL is a high limit. Which leads me to my next point:

3.) D.A.I. (DONT ASSUME INTELLIGENCE) This was taken right out of the book. Its hard to bluff at people when 1.) they dont have any knowledge of the game and will call you down with garbage and 2.) Do not have regard for 50 or 100 bucks.

All in all, its worth buying and reading but you have to pick and choose your info, if you take to much of it to heart you might as well flush your money down the toilet, this book should guide you a little, not warp your game.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Usefulness takes second stage to reminiscence., August 14, 2006

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker (Paperback)

Matt Lessinger, The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker (Warner, 2005)

I'm not a bluffer. Reading The Book of Bluffs convinced me that I will likely never be a bluffer. (I do wonder about some of the things Lessinger calls bluffs, though; raising with a fistful of outs does not strike me as a bluff.)

Now, don't get me wrong, It's a good book. If you take it as simply a compendium of bluffs rather than a how-to book, there are some great hands to revisit here. You probably thought "what the hell was he thinking?" when you watched some of these hands on television. You'll probably think the same thing reading about them. If you can use this as a how-to book, and master this style of play, it will put you in the stratosphere against good players. (Remember, though, David Sklansky's correct assertion in Tournament Poker for Advanced Players that loose-aggressive players will hamstring every bluff in your arsenal-- and the majority of the players you'll meet online and in your Tuesday night home game are likely to fall into that category.) You'll be in the Daniel Negreanu league. (Get the right Botox injections, and you may even make Phil Ivey level.)

Fun stuff one way or the other for poker enthusiasts. *** ½