Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

Although retired FBI Special Agent Joe Navarro is the primary author of this book, the largest name on the cover is that of Phil Hellmuth. This establishes the tone of the entire book, whose very valuable core content is surrounded by an equal amount of fluff, hero worship, and self-promotion.

Most successful online poker players already possess a level of poker knowledge well beyond that of the target audience for most poker books, particularly with regard to the strategic and mathematical elements of the game. It is in the realm of psychology and reading people where most of us are lacking, and so studying tells is one of the best things the average internet player can do to improve his success in a live setting.

Mike Caro has already written a seminal text on the subject, Caro's Book of Poker Tells, and I was slow to read Navarro's book on the mistaken assumption that much of it would be old hat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Navarro has in fact managed to take both a fundamentally different approach to thinking about tells and to examine many new categories of tells that receive little if any treatment in Caro's book. These include tells related to feet, hand, mouth, and eye movement.

Whereas Caro draws an important distinction between tells from actors and tells from non-actors and devotes more of his book to the former, Navarro focuses almost exclusively on the latter. He begins by establishing the physiological foundation of unconscious tells in what he calls the limbic brain. As he describes it, the limbic brain "react[s] to things that are heard, seen, sensed, or felt. It does so instantaneously, in real time, without thought; and, for that reason, it gives off an honest reponse to information from the environment."

When confronted with stressful situations, such as those in a high stakes poker game, the limbic brain prepares the body to freeze, fight, or flee. In later chapters, Navarro goes on to detail how these limbic responses manifest themselves in instinctive body movements. These chapters, which form the core of the book, contain numerous photographs and written descriptions of the tells he has in mind.

Perhaps more importantly, Navarro always returns to the physiological motivation for a particular tell, which presumably will aid in interpreting not only that exact movement but also others of a similar kind. Thus, he has a chapter on "Gravity-Defying Tells" which gives examples of how raised eyebrows, hands, nostrils, or feet all indicate strength, whereas a decline of any of these body parts indicates the opposite. As a result of Navarro's thorough explanation of the reason for his interpretations, one can easily imagine similar tells coming from the knees or shoulders that are not explicitly considered in the chapter. The insights he offers promise to pay off well beyond the specific information he provides in the book.

Still, it would have been nice to see more individual tells covered in detail in a 213-page book. Some of the other content, such as the section of physiology and the section on how to avoid giving off tells of your own, is well worth including. Indeed, much of the value of this book comes from the perspective from outside of poker that Navarro is able to bring to his interpretation of tells. He establishes context for the phenomena he discusses by drawing connections to such disparate subjects as the behavior of juries during courtroom trials, the responses of Mission Control to the Apollo 13 crisis, and his own experience interrogating witnesses and suspects.

Other chapters, most notably "What You Should Know to Vanquish a Pro," contain advice that is irrelevant to the subject of the book and sometimes downright bad. For example, should you find yourself playing with Phil Hellmuth or Lyle Berman (Navarro's examples, not mine), he assures you that "you're going to be in awe of this player.... Don't be afraid to exhibit a bit of hero worship and even deferential behavior to this living legend when you first meet him or her."

Read 'Em and Reap certainly does not shy away from hero worship. It is peppered with references to the greatness of Annie Duke, TJ Cloutier, and of course Phil Hellmuth, who is allowed to conclude nearly every chapter with a self-absorbed rant about some amazing laydown he made based on a recently analyzed tell. Moreover, the index shows Camp Hellmuth referenced on no fewer than 13 pages, almost always in a shamelessly promotional context about how great the staff is or how quickly attendees were able "to win back their seminar costs and much more."

Navarro also spends much of his clunky introduction (what I consider to me the real meat of the book doesn't start until page 79) overselling the value of the information he's about to present. The most blatant example of this is the "Hellmuth Tournament Poker 70-30 Rule", which states that 70% of tournament poker is tells. I'm not even certain what exactly that is supposed to mean, but I'm sure it's wrong. There's no getting around the fact that, Hellmuth's anecdotes aside, tells are almost exclusively useful as a tie-breaker when facing a close decision.

Still, it's by far the most underexploited aspect of the game by the average internet donkey, and I found the meat of Navarro's book very valuable for this reason. It's well worth working through the corny packaging and shameless self-promotion to find smart analysis of dozens of new tells that, to my knowledge, have not been discussed elsewhere in print.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

Foucault--

Nice review, dude.

--Nate

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

I agree it is a nice review.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

We should all copy/paste this to notepad so that when someone asks, we have an outstanding answer ready.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

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Read 'Em and Reap certainly does not shy away from hero worship. It is peppered with references to the greatness of Annie Duke, TJ Cloutier, and of course Phil Hellmuth, who is allowed to conclude nearly every chapter with a self-absorbed rant about some amazing laydown he made based on a recently analyzed tell. Moreover, the index shows Camp Hellmuth referenced on no fewer than 13 pages, almost always in a shamelessly promotional context about how great the staff is or how quickly attendees were able "to win back their seminar costs and much more."



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Fortunately, most of Hellmuth's "contributions" to the book are highlighted in gray for easy skipping.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

My emotional side probably would be in awe of some of them, but my logical side would remind me they get their cards like I do, one at a time.

In the end, respect is one thing and awe is another.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

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Read 'Em and Reap certainly does not shy away from hero worship. It is peppered with references to the greatness of Annie Duke, TJ Cloutier, and of course Phil Hellmuth, who is allowed to conclude nearly every chapter with a self-absorbed rant about some amazing laydown he made based on a recently analyzed tell. Moreover, the index shows Camp Hellmuth referenced on no fewer than 13 pages, almost always in a shamelessly promotional context about how great the staff is or how quickly attendees were able "to win back their seminar costs and much more."



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Fortunately, most of Hellmuth's "contributions" to the book are highlighted in gray for easy skipping.

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LOL. I did exactly this when reading this book.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

Great review! Thanks.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

Good review. I found the book to be much better than Caro on an intellectual level. Everything that Navarro presents makes sense.

The problem is, you just don't see much if any of this stuff in a real game. The material is presented so clearly and logically that you feel very well prepared for your next casino trip. Then.... flump. You just don't see any of it. Or you see it, but it doesn't mean what it's supposed to mean. A vibrating leg means a leg that fell asleep, general state of being more awake which is a natural part of daily cycles for most people, generic habit when waiting for the cocktail waitress, or what have you.

I have no doubt a lot of this stuff is real, but I'm not seeing it when I play.

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

I second that, the book is a good read and the review posted above couldn't be any better. Only problem is the live players not acting on to it. Either that or I'm just too blind to see (which is as likely).

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

I'm one of those internet players (not very good but a small winner) who isn't very good at reading players when playing B&M. Like most things I have improved with time but I'm not a natural. Of all the things mentioned in Navarro's book, it is the leg shaking Tell that I have been able to use most during play. I'm not saying the others don't exist but it's the leg shaking/bouncing that I have been able to pick up on more than one occassion.

One regular player who can be very aggressive and incorporates large River bet/bluffs in his game exhibits this Tell. I am quite sure I can now pick between his large bet strong hands and bluffs because he bounces his feet under the table when he's strong.

Also, on one occassion playing a Sat morning tourny I made a big laydown from the BB (excuse my inner Phil). It was late in the tournament, there were less than 20 players remaining (originally 100 or so) and the blinds were hurting. The Button player made a large raise (he was first in), the SB folded and I had AJo in the BB. Yes he was a Tight player, but it was his bouncing leg that clinched the fold.

I'm sure that better players than me will get more out of this book than I have to date, but even a slightly above average player like me has got something tangible from it.

Look out for happy feet!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. The Button player had AA. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

Thought I'd jump in with my Card Player review of this excellent book (pasted below).

I didn't harp on it too much in my review, but I did find a lot of the stylistic stuff too cute by half (the lame puns, the attempts at cleverness); I admire genuine cleverness, but it just never worked (and seemed almost antithetical to Navarro's FBI-ish demeanor).

Remember, too, that this kind of book will by default exaggerate tells and their meaning, which are subtle by definition. It's actually quite hard to spot a lot of physical tells, and even when you do (as Navarro points), you have to decide what that tell means. (In other words, the first time you see, say, blinking eyes or foot tapping, you really don't know what it means, but if there's a showdown, then you might be able to make a connection so that the second time you observe the behavior, it will help you make a decision.)

Also, remember that tells in low-limit games are notoriously unreliable. Someone playing ace-rag who flops an ace may well believe he has the best hand and act accordingly.

I think Navarro's book is quite brilliant (in its conception more than its prose), but the application is quite difficult to use.

Anyway, here's my Card Player review of the book (in the August 30, 2006, issue of the magazine):

It was the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes who said to his partner and chronicler Dr. Watson: “You see, but you do not observe.” That could be the mantra of former FBI agent Joe Navarro, who has spent his career observing people and the nonverbal cues—the tells—they give off. Over the past two years, Navarro has applied his formidable intelligence and relevant experience to poker, and the result is a book that every player should read.

Even casual players know the idea behind tells, and students of the game are no doubt familiar with Mike Caro’s groundbreaking Caro’s Book of Poker Tells. But Navarro’s book is valuable precisely because he is relatively new to poker. His specialty when he was an FBI agent was on nonverbal communication and behavior analysis, and his insights into how people respond in interview situations are directly applicable to the poker table. Navarro met Annie Duke 2004 while both were guests on a TV show about humans and lying, and it was her ability to see through other people that got him thinking about poker. Then Phil Hellmuth enrolled the former FBI man as a speaker at his poker fantasy camp.

In an introduction to Navarro’s book, Hellmuth makes it perfectly clear how important tells are: “Success in the game is 70 percent reading people and only 30 percent reading the cards (understanding the mathematical and technical aspects of the game”). People may quibble over those percentages, but after reading Navarro’s book, I suspect Hellmuth is pretty close. I also suspect great players already know how to decipher tells and read players, even if they can’t articulate exactly what they’re doing. But even they will learn something from Navarro’s book—as will the rest of us.

After articulating the importance of observation, Navarro explains some of the physiology (and even the evolutionary biology) of tells. The brain’s limbic system is what reacts to outside stimuli (it tells us to fight, flee, or freeze in the face of danger), while the neocortex—the thinking part of the brain—is what makes conscious decisions. (The neocortex also allows us to lie, while the limbic system “gives off an honest response to incoming information.)

How does this apply to the poker table? An example: Bluffing is, for most people, a frightening experience; we’re afraid of being caught. The implicit danger causes some people to “freeze because they feel threatened and don’t want to be noticed.” They hold their breath, stop fidgeting, sit straight up in their chair. The observant player will notice this, and use it to help make a decision. Another example is “the flight response”: our desire to get away from sources of danger. “You’ll draw nearer to the table…when you have a great hand and draw back when your hole cards are bad.” There’s a third innate response to dangerous situation: fight. “At the poker table,” he writes, “the fight response often takes the form of aggression.” While aggressive betting is typically good; aggressive behavior, Navarro argues, is less so. (And if you’re the victim of a table bully, you have to ignore him—and it’s almost always a “him.”)

It’s one thing to pick up on tells (and I’m convinced anyone can improve his or her ability to do so). It’s another to avoid giving off tells, and Navarro devotes a considerable amount of space this topic, providing a systematic approach to establishing and controlling your table image (not your betting image, but the image you present through posture and movement). Develop a system for looking at your hole cards and making your bets, and never vary (Hellmuth is superb at this, as is Chris Ferguson).

The most fascinating chapter in the book was about what Navarro calls “the most honest part of your body”: your feet. Again, it’s an issue of evolutionary biology: “Our feet and legs not only react to threats and stressors, they are also reactive to our emotions,” he writes—think dancing, nervous foot-tapping, stomping feet at a sporting event. (You can’t really check out another player’s feet, but movement of the shoulders will often reveal if a player is a exhibiting “happy feet.”)

Navarro describes and interprets dozens of physical gestures and tells, from the pursing of the lips to what people do with their hands while waiting to bet or seeing if they’ll get called. And it doesn’t take a great deal of live poker experience to believe he knows what he’s talking about; the real challenge, of course, is knowing when to use the tells you do pick up to make decisions. Tells are a factor in your decision-making, but they are most reliable in the context of “baseline behaviors” (for example, older players often have hand tremors, so shaking hands don’t tell you much about the strength of their cards). And tells are remarkably unhelpful when dealing with players who are clueless. (If a player truly believes his top pair is good with a board showing three cards to a flush or a straight, he’s not likely to exhibit tells that suggest weakness or fear.)

The material in this book is insightful and useful. My only criticism is with the style of the prose, which occasionally strives much too hard to be clever (for example, a subhead that reads “A Rise in the Feet Means the Cards Held Are Sweet”; that’s just painful to read; I’ve never met Joe Navarro, but I’d lay quite a wager that he doesn’t talk like that and doesn’t write like that). Lots of poker books promise to pay for themselves; for those who study it carefully Read ’em and Reap will also certainly be a money-maker. [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Review: Read \'Em and Reap
 

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My only criticism is with the style of the prose, which occasionally strives much too hard to be clever (for example, a subhead that reads “A Rise in the Feet Means the Cards Held Are Sweet”; that’s just painful to read; I’ve never met Joe Navarro, but I’d lay quite a wager that he doesn’t talk like that and doesn’t write like that).

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I had just assumed it was a form of mnemonic - isn't it primarily the picture captions and section titles that are cheesy like that?