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 Mike
Caro has been giving away poker secrets for nearly three decades. From his
contributions to Doyle Brunson's Super System to his magazine articles
featuring tips on strategy and statistics, the knowledge shared by the man
known as the "Mad Genius of Poker" has been so widely disseminated by this
point that much of what was once top-secret material is now considered common
knowledge even by many beginning poker players. Caro's Book of Poker Tells,
probably his most classic work, contains a good deal of information that has
made its way into the poker vernacular. For online players who plan on playing
live more often, this volume can still be a valuable source of information
that can win them more money.
At the beginning of the Book of Poker Tells, Caro sets forth his Great
Law of Tells: "Players are either acting or they aren't. If they are acting,
then decide what they want you to do and disappoint them." Everything that's
contained in this book follows from this Great Law, starting with the two main
sections of the book: tells that come from actors and tells that come from
those who are unaware. The tells from those who are unaware are the ones most
likely to make you money over the long haul, because they give you information
that a player doesn't realize he's divulging. The tells from players who are
acting are designed to mislead you into making the wrong decision - you
probably won't encounter them nearly as often as those from the unaware
players, but when you do you'll be able to win or save yourself a lot of money
by either picking off big bluffs or folding second-best hands at the right
time.
Each section of the book is broken down into particular tells. These include
how people handle and stack their chips, whether they double-check their
cards, showing sudden interest in playing a hand after appearing distracted,
and whether they appear confrontational or nervous. These tells are described
in terms of how to spot the tell, how reliable the tell is, and what the
motivation behind the tell is. Then Caro gives the best possible for strategy
for acting on these tells. These individual sections can be overwhelming if
read all together, as many of the tells seem to blend together. It's best to
cover only a few at a time, making sure that you understand the full
implications of each tell before trying to fully master a new one. This is
made easier by the inclusion of Caro's Laws of Tells in almost every section,
which break the text down into simple, easy-to-remember truisms.
To add to the information presented in the Book of Poker Tells, Caro
includes photographs that demonstrate each of the tells that he's described.
In all there are more than 170 of these photos in the book. Because this book
was originally published almost 30 years ago, the appearance of some of the
players in the photos can be humorous to today's audience. Some of the photos
are also more useful than others, especially for those players who are more
accustomed to learning from video than from still pictures. Not seeing the
tells in action can sometimes make it hard to know exactly what one is looking
for. (It's worth noting that Mr. Caro does have a DVD available which focuses
on tells - it may be that those who have difficulty learning from the book
will be more successful with the video.) Outside of examples involving people
playing 5-card draw poker, this is probably the portion of the book that most
shows it age.
Despite being one of the oldest poker books still in publication today,
Caro's Book of Poker Tells is still a very useful resource. While you may
have learned some of the information in the book from other sources to which
it has trickled down over the years, it never hurts to go straight to the
source. Caro's text is easy to read, often entertaining, and full of
information necessary to crush the live game for all it's worth.
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