Beyond Bluffs: Master the Mysteries of Poker (Paperback)

~ James McKenna (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Play your opponents, not just your cards!

The most important game being played in a poker room has nothing to do with cards-it-s the psychological battle being waged between players. In Beyond Bluffs, poker columnist and psychotherapist James A. McKenna shows you how to elevate your game to a new level by playing your opponents as expertly as you play your hand. With these advanced people skills, you-ll be able to determine how and when a player is bluffing, and know which bluffs to use in response. You-ll even be able to predict how different types of players will think and react in any game situation.

Go beyond spotting bluffs to reading your opponents!

In his acclaimed Beyond Tells, McKenna introduced a unique way of integrating personality types with reading tells. Beyond Bluffs delves further into those six key personality types-The Boss, Party Hardy, High Roller, System Player, Loner, and Hunch Player-revealing the psychological patterns that govern the way they live and the way they play. McKenna shows you how to spot the subtle clues that reveal when a person is bluffing or telling the truth. You-ll learn when, how, and against whom to bluff with -garbage- hands, how to avoid bluffing when you don-t have to, and the difference between planned and unplanned bluffs.

Discover the clues to look for and unravel the mysteries of poker!

Plenty of poker books outline strategies that can help you become a good tactical player. Beyond Bluffs goes further, unraveling the real mysteries of the game and providing the psychological advantage that will help you play smarter every time. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Lyle Stuart (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0818407093
• ISBN-13: 978-0818407093
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,245,138 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fuzzy writing from a fuzzy thinker, November 25, 2006

By	Seth Baldwin (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With a PhD and decades of experience as a practicing therapist, James McKenna should be a good source of information on the psychology of poker. He has a couple of interesting ideas: He categorizes players based on Jungian personality types (the source of the Meyers-Briggs personality test) and describes their bluffing tendencies and what tells to look for. Unfortunately, his prose is sloppy, many of his concepts half baked, and the majority of his text is one vague generalization after another, ultimately saying nothing. He even confuses bluffing with betting for value. Despite his rampant verbosity, he offers few actionable suggestions. After reading it you will be no closer to mastering the "mysteries" of poker. Don't fall for the author's bluff by buying this book.

3.0 out of 5 stars What it is...and isn't., December 26, 2009

By	DarthDCLXVI - See all my reviews

This is part two in a three book series. It should be understood who the author is and who he isn't. He isn't a WSOP champion or even a full time professional poker player. So these books are not a bunch of final table war stories, or intended as manuals on how to play poker. The author is a full time professional psychologist who happens to play a lot of poker. The books are intended to give clinical insights into how you and the other players at the table are probably already playing poker. If you're intelligent enough, you can use these insights to improve your ability to profile, read, bluff and trap them while avoiding it being done to you.

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money for a real poker professional's book., June 27, 2009

By	Anson Langhorn "Not my real name" (Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This book, and its companion volume "Beyond Tells" turned out to be very disappointing. I expected a person with a Ph.D. to be a better writer, or at least to have the resources to locate a skilled editor/proofreader. I suspect that these books were hastily thrown together merely to capitalize on the increased interest in the game. I only ended up with them because someone gave me a book store gift card, and I bought them without doing any research. Big mistake.

One reviewer described "Beyond Tells" as being the same old stuff, wrapped in McKenna's pet phrases. I couldn't have said it better, and the same is true for "Beyound Bluffs." Every therapist/psychologist has their own language for describing (or attempting to describe) the complex behavior people exhibit, and McKenna is no exception. He believes he has personalities boiled down to six main types, which is a vast oversimplification. He essentially ignores the 720 possible combinations of those six; he doesn't even go too far into the 30 possible combinations of any two of his six types. Think of the following seven poker players, and decide if six types is enough to describe them: Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Doyle Brunson, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen.

When it comes to poker books, there is much, MUCH better writing on the market. In "Beyond Bluffs" especially, McKenna sometimes seems to lose his place when discussing the progression of a poker hand, or a series of hands. This discontinuity became such a distraction, I had difficulty gleaning any nuggets of knowledge.

As for McKenna's actual knowledge or skill at the poker tables, I'll just suggest this: use your favorite internet search engine, and try to find anything he's actually won, as opposed to stuff he's written. Try even to find his name (that's James McKenna, not Tom or Mike) in any list of nationally known or ranked players. Each time you fail to find his name, ask yourself, "So what is it that qualifies this guy to write on this subject?" True, not everyone goes to Vegas to make their money, but that makes a fine benchmark for deciding whose books to buy.

Bottom line: Your "poker book" money will be much better spent on Caro, Sklansky, Harrington, or any other person you've heard of before.