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Verbal Poker Tells
Verbal Poker Tells is the follow-up to Zachary Elwood's acclaimed book Reading Poker Tells. When poker players talk, they sometimes reveal information about their hands. Verbal Poker Tells describes the most common and reliable verbal patterns poker players have. More importantly, it gives you a framework for thinking about and analyzing verbal behavior at the poker table.
The author analyzes many real poker some from televised poker shows such as the World Series of Poker, Poker After Dark, and High Stakes Poker, some players by the author, and some submitted by other players.
The author's blog and ebooks are at ReadingPokerTells.com.
REVIEWS "This book needed to be written, and it will never need to be written again . . . [a] treasure of profitable content." - Tommy Angelo, pro poker player, author of Elements of Poker
". . . a veritable encyclopedia of ways in which poker players reveal information when they open their mouths." - Andrew Brokos, pro poker player, co-host of the Thinking Poker Podcast
"If you work through the comprehensive examples you will get ten years worth of poker experience in a few days. This is an invaluable empirical treatment of an important source of live poker edge."
- Aaron Brown, author of The Poker Face of Wall Street
The author analyzes many real poker some from televised poker shows such as the World Series of Poker, Poker After Dark, and High Stakes Poker, some players by the author, and some submitted by other players.
The author's blog and ebooks are at ReadingPokerTells.com.
REVIEWS "This book needed to be written, and it will never need to be written again . . . [a] treasure of profitable content." - Tommy Angelo, pro poker player, author of Elements of Poker
". . . a veritable encyclopedia of ways in which poker players reveal information when they open their mouths." - Andrew Brokos, pro poker player, co-host of the Thinking Poker Podcast
"If you work through the comprehensive examples you will get ten years worth of poker experience in a few days. This is an invaluable empirical treatment of an important source of live poker edge."
- Aaron Brown, author of The Poker Face of Wall Street
442 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 20, 2021
I've had a few months without much poker through a combination of covid lockdowns, a long busy period at work and the end of my weekly home game. A couple of really good tournaments have come up recently so I've been brushing up on my poker skills, listening to poker podcasts, reading a few different poker books and generally trying to get back into the proper mindset.
Zachary Elwood's Verbal Poker Tells was definitely worth the read. I played one of the tournaments recently and was able to instantly use some of the advice in the books. At the start of the tourney everyone was quite tight lipped, trying to get a read on each other. But by the end of the first break everyone had loosened up a little and spoke a little more freely.
I've read a few different books on poker tells but haven't really managed to ever put it to much use. Depending on the seat you are in, you don't always have a good view on how someone is acting and it's hard to pick up on minor cues of body language. This is the first book I've seen that really goes in depth into verbal tells. A lot of the content of the book examines various different scenarios, which all feel like they should be understood intuitively, but it helps a lot having them thoroughly examined and explained.
There was two spots in particular in the recent tourney I played that I was able to use the ideas in Verbal Poker Tells. The first was a spot where I raised pre-flop on the button with 10-7 suited, the small blind folded and the big blind said something along the lines of 'well I'm already in this much, I may as well call'. Which felt like he was trying to really justify his call, in essence saying 'I don't have a good hand but I've already put in the big blind so I may as well call, or in truth, 'I've got a monster hand and I'm going to try to suggest an alternate reason why I'm actually calling'. This payed off big time because I was able to put him on a big hand and flopped a massive draw, which meant I was able to keep betting heavily and got paid off well when I hit the straight on the river. The second was just a defensive statement made which made me more confident to continue betting on the turn.
Elwood does state that verbal tells won't come often and aren't always going to be easy to interpret, which is true. Poker is one of those games in which every edge counts, if even once a session you manage to pick up one tell which makes you able to make one hard fold, well timed bluff or value bet at the right time, then it can be the difference between a losing session or winning one, or the one right move that gets you into the money in a tournament.
Listening to what people say in poker and trying to pick up clues from their speech has always been a part of the game, but it is very helpful for someone to break down some of the most meaningful patterns of speech and potential tells. Will absolutely give this a second listen later on (had the audio-book version) to try to fully digest all of the concepts, then try to add verbal tells to a part of my game.
Zachary Elwood's Verbal Poker Tells was definitely worth the read. I played one of the tournaments recently and was able to instantly use some of the advice in the books. At the start of the tourney everyone was quite tight lipped, trying to get a read on each other. But by the end of the first break everyone had loosened up a little and spoke a little more freely.
I've read a few different books on poker tells but haven't really managed to ever put it to much use. Depending on the seat you are in, you don't always have a good view on how someone is acting and it's hard to pick up on minor cues of body language. This is the first book I've seen that really goes in depth into verbal tells. A lot of the content of the book examines various different scenarios, which all feel like they should be understood intuitively, but it helps a lot having them thoroughly examined and explained.
There was two spots in particular in the recent tourney I played that I was able to use the ideas in Verbal Poker Tells. The first was a spot where I raised pre-flop on the button with 10-7 suited, the small blind folded and the big blind said something along the lines of 'well I'm already in this much, I may as well call'. Which felt like he was trying to really justify his call, in essence saying 'I don't have a good hand but I've already put in the big blind so I may as well call, or in truth, 'I've got a monster hand and I'm going to try to suggest an alternate reason why I'm actually calling'. This payed off big time because I was able to put him on a big hand and flopped a massive draw, which meant I was able to keep betting heavily and got paid off well when I hit the straight on the river. The second was just a defensive statement made which made me more confident to continue betting on the turn.
Elwood does state that verbal tells won't come often and aren't always going to be easy to interpret, which is true. Poker is one of those games in which every edge counts, if even once a session you manage to pick up one tell which makes you able to make one hard fold, well timed bluff or value bet at the right time, then it can be the difference between a losing session or winning one, or the one right move that gets you into the money in a tournament.
Listening to what people say in poker and trying to pick up clues from their speech has always been a part of the game, but it is very helpful for someone to break down some of the most meaningful patterns of speech and potential tells. Will absolutely give this a second listen later on (had the audio-book version) to try to fully digest all of the concepts, then try to add verbal tells to a part of my game.
November 13, 2017
No one has published better or more thorough guides to poker tells than Zach Elwood. This book is meticulously researched and well written with lots of examples, and the layout and print quality are excellent.
What I like best about Elwood is his honesty and thoughtfulness. He is very candid in explaining just how accurate or useful tells are in specific situations.
I can't imagine a poker player that wouldn't benefit from reading this book.
What I like best about Elwood is his honesty and thoughtfulness. He is very candid in explaining just how accurate or useful tells are in specific situations.
I can't imagine a poker player that wouldn't benefit from reading this book.
December 11, 2020
Malmuth rates this one about an 10
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews