Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells: Devastate Opponents by Reading Body Language, Table Talk, Chip Moves, And Much More [Paperback]

Randy Burgess (Author), Carl Baldassarre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

A snarling dog can sense our fear, no matter how much we try to conceal it - and so can an expert poker player studying us from across the table. In each case we betray ourselves through cues so slight we're often completely unaware of them: the beat of the pulse at our neck, the blink of an apparently steady eye, an ever-so-slightly elevated tone of voice...In the jargon of poker, such giveaways are called "tells", and they can be worth a lot of money to the player who knows how to use them. Surprisingly, there's still only one book published that explains how to use them in detail, and that book is 20 years out of date. Hence, "Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells".

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157243807X
• ISBN-13: 978-1572438071
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aside from a brief spell early in my 20s making and delivering pizza, I've always worked as a writer. For many years this was in newspapers, where I juggled suburban meeting coverage, investigative journalism, and front-page features. I've also been a contract technical writer and a magazine editor. For the past four years I've been doing non-fiction book doctoring, helping authors from proposal to finished manuscript.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars it was a good idea..., May 21, 2006

By 

J. Rubino (Simi Valley,Ca USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells: Devastate Opponents by Reading Body Language, Table Talk, Chip Moves, And Much More (Paperback)

I wavered between a 3 and a 4 rating. If you don't have Mike Caro's "Book of Tells" you will find some good stuff here; if you have the "Book of Tells" you are going to think you have an updated version. It is well written and well organized. As a "Tells" book it is not bad, but the majority is borrowed and thus unoriginal. The authors, who I feel it important to mention, are primarily writers and not poker players(taken from their own "bio" material from the book). They have collected and re-written the tells information from other published works and added a small amount of original material. The original material is a small part of the book and nothing "definitively" new.

Collecting tells information from numerous sources and presenting it as a single source is a very good idea; unfortunately, in my opinion they dropped the ball on what could have been an even better book. My own notebooks contain many tells not even mentioned in this "Ultimate Guide". If they were more serious players or diligent author/ researchers they would have provided us with a much richer and and more complete book of tells, given their title. If it is your first tells book it gets a 4; if not it gets a 3. I don't think it is a bad book, I just don't feel it lives up to it's title or presents any new or especially useful material that is not mostly covered in Caro's book.

The addition of "angle plays" may be quite helpful to newer players and is good advice for protecting your cards and yourself at all times. The book has several merits that Caro's book does not, but Caro's book still holds up surprisingly well even after over twenty years. All in all a helpful book although a little short as "The Ultimate Guide" to tells.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but it doesn't have anything really new., June 30, 2006

By 

M. R Turner "zenresistance" (Los Estados Unidos) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells: Devastate Opponents by Reading Body Language, Table Talk, Chip Moves, And Much More (Paperback)

The strategies and facts in the book are well-presented and well-written, and there are several good tidbits of information inside... But as far as being what its title suggests, well, I reckon it's good marketing. It does provide much of the information from Caro's original "Book of Tells" and expands on some of it, but as I wrote a moment ago, it doesn't have anything that someone who's been playing live (not online) poker for a year or so wouldn't know already -- other than a few bits here and there.

I'd recommend this book to beginners and studious amateurs.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening Book Helps an online player shift to casino play, May 26, 2006

By 

S. Carroll "Stelidan" (NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells: Devastate Opponents by Reading Body Language, Table Talk, Chip Moves, And Much More (Paperback)

I am an online player and therefore very familair with hand percentages, pot odds and basic betting strategy. However, in a live game I sometimes feel a little out of my element. This book opened my eyes to much of what I needed to pay attention too. To fully appreciate the book, you must have a pretty good knowledge of the game, but the book was helpful in that it put a lot of what happens at a live table in context. One would think some of the observations are obvious, but knowing what to look for and pay attention to truly does allow you to better trust your gut and instincts during a game. I don't even look at my cards until I have to anymore. Rather I study the table based on techniques garnered form the book. Not only do learn about the other players at the table through observation, but it helps you set up a strategy for your own behavior when its your turn. Bottom line...highly recommended for the fairly new but serious player.