Caro's Book of Poker Tells Review

Caro’s Book of Poker Tells, written by the ‘Mad Genius of Poker’ is written to teach the reader how to exploit poker tells by other players. A tell is defined by the book as ‘any mannerism which helps you determine the secrets of an opponents hand.’ The book classifies tells into sections based on the type of tell being exhibited, and explains what each tell means and what to do if you see the tell. For each tell, the book gives it’s estimated reliability how often novice, intermediate, and expert players will exhibit this tell. The book also gives an estimate of how much money can be gained per hour using each tell.

After picking up Caro's Book of Poker Tells and reading a few pages, I instantly hated it. As I kept reading, I found that most of the problems I had with the book were superficial, and that there was a lot of merit to the things Caro was saying. The first thing I found that bothered me in Caro’s Book of Poker Tells was that Caro constantly refers to the information he’s giving as science - The Science of Tells! To me, it sounds too much like an infomercial, and that instantly put up red flags. Caro doesn’t back up any of what he’s saying with scientific evidence. All of the numbers in Caro’s Book of Poker Tells are arbitrary. He gives percentages for how often players of each skill level will exhibit these tells, but he admits in the beginning that these are his own estimates. Estimates of the worth per hour of each tell are also arbitrary numbers given by Caro. I wouldn’t have a problem with it if Caro would stop trying to use the word science to sell his theories. Sure, tells involve a bit of psychology, and maybe he did do a whole lot of scientific research into each of his tells, but in that case, he needs to back up what he says. The second thing that bothered me in Caro’s Book of Poker Tells, was the way Caro treated poker. Basically he says that people will play poker at random. He gives a phony, cooked up circumstance in which players played completely differently under the exact same circumstances. It seems like he expects players to completely ignore their cards, and bluff constantly. All of this seems to be saying ‘My way is the only way you can win at poker’ and it feels again, like an infomercial.

Now, if you can get past these initial problems, Caro’s Book of Poker Tells has a lot of good information in it. First off, Caro outlines a system for describing poker hands, called MCU poker charts, which are quite useful. I’m a bit surprised that more people haven’t adopted this method of describing hands. Second, despite the infomercial delivery, the information in this book is quite useful. Depending on the player you’re up against these tells can be very useful. Granted, like any poker strategy, a beginner who doesn’t know what he’s doing is going to foul you up quite a bit.

Summary:
If you can get over the initial infomercial delivery of the information, the book contains a lot of interesting and useful information. The book very easy to read and very entertaining. Caro’s Book of Poker Tells will not make you a poker god. It would, however, be a good supplement to solid poker fundamentals. I would recommend intermediate or advanced players check it out. Beginners might want to combine this with a beginning poker book such as Hold’em Poker by David Sklansky or Winning Low Limit Hold’em by Lee Jones.

-Dave

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