Read ‘Em and Reap

Phil Hellmuth Presents Read ‘Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent’s Guide to Decoding Poker Tells
by Joe Navarro,  Marvin Karlins,  Phil Hellmuth

Joe Navarro, one of the co-authors of the book was serving as a special agent in FBI. He mastered the art of behavioural attitude with his job in FBI and utilised the same skills for poker tells. Along with Joe Navarro, Phil Hellmuth is one of the main authors of the book.

A majority of the successful online poker players already know the basic poker skills and possess the expertise which is beyond the scope of the beginners. There are tons of books in the market which speak of poker strategies and the mathematical elements attached to the game. However, most players lack the psychological elements of the game and fail to read people appropriately. Therefore knowing more about poker tells is one of the best things to do as an average poker player, so as to improve the chances in the live settings.

Previously, Mike Caro has made an attempt in explaining the poker tells through his ‘Book of Poker Tells’. However this book takes a completely different approach, while explaining the categories of poker tells and the ways to deal with them. The book also includes tells related to the hand, the feet, the mouth and the overall eye movement.

There is a unique distinction between tells portrayed by the actors and the signs given out by the non-actors. The book elaborates more on the latter kind of players. Navarro begins by explaining the limbic brain, which is the psychological foundation of the unconscious, tells. According to him, the limbic brain reacts to all those things which are heard, sensed, seen or felt. The reactions given out by the brain are so spontaneous in real time and therefore give out an honest response to all the information from the surrounding environment.

As soon as stressful situations are created, just like the ones in the high stakes poker game, the limbic brain would prepare the body to fight, freeze or flee. In the later parts of the book, the authors give out details on how these responses manifest themselves into different body movements. There are various photographs to support the theory, along with description of tells.

The reports on physiological motivations for a tell are pretty interesting and ‘Gravity Defying Tells’ is one of the best chapters in the book. This chapter gives out examples of tells such as raised eyebrows, nostrils, hands or feet. It happens to be a 213 page book, with most information on tells. However, there are a few chapters in the book which are completely irrelevant as compared to the subject of the book. On the whole, the book is fairly informative and would be of great help to the beginners. On the other hand, it would be interesting and captivating to find the interrelation between court judgements, jury discussions and poker tells, all coming from an authentic record of Joe Navarro.

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