Title: “Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells”
Author: Mike Caro
Facts: “Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells” contains 320 pages. It is available in 3 formats on Amazon. The paperback version is currently $19.13
About the author
Mike Caro is seen by many as the foremost authority in poker statistics, psychology and strategy. His most widely spread nickname is “Mad Genius”. This is mostly because of the highly complex strategy and analysis used and the simple explanations that he comes up with. Caro is also an authority in gambling and supports the game of poker as one in which you can make money, as opposed to others in which odds against the player cannot be overcome. He wrote 7 books till now with “Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells – The Psychology and Body Language of Poker” being the most successful one.
Review
“Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells” is one of the most well-known books in poker history. Its main purpose is to help you identify poker tells so that you can be more successful in live poker. You are told that you will learn when other players bluff, when they do not bluff and you will have over 170 pictures that show examples with tells.
Caro used mathematical analysis to basically pioneer modern poker strategies. Thousands of professionals now use his teachings.
Caro’s Book Versus Other Books
Most poker books you will have a chance of reading will have a main focus on when and how to play hands, together with how to bet and how much. This book is different as the focus is put solely on using opponent tells in order to gain an advantage. You should not use the book if you only want to play online. However, if you want to move towards live poker from online play, it is a guarantee you will need to read Caro’s book. Your opponent most likely already did.
Inside “Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells”
The book is broken up in 2 sections:
- Acting tells
- Natural tells
According to Caro, players act or they do not. When they act, you have to decide what to do to disappoint them. The first pages in the book will focus on situations when players will not act. The rest remains focused on opponents that do act.
Poker hands are explained with charts so that excess words are not needed. The charts are known as MCU Poker Charts, devised by Caro in order to easily explain the concepts to the readers.
“Caro’s Book Of Poker Tells” helps identify and find subconscious signals that opponents do without being aware of. Because of this, you are told that you should never act on tells you spot when you spot them.
Criticism
There are not many problems with the book. One is that the tell reliability percentages presented are no longer accurate. That is because so many poker players already read this book. You will most likely read it too. This changes the game. Make sure you take all the information offered and you adapt it, trying to constantly change your game.
The only other problem with the book is that it is very old. It was republished and some extra information was included but that does not make it 100% accurate to the modern game. Nowadays people have access to the internet, sites like Mac Poker. They learn poker and constantly improve.
Conclusions
“Caro’s Book of Poker Tells” is definitely a must-read for absolutely every single serious live poker out there. Not all the information you will find in the book is useful but you have at least 200-250 pages that you will want to read. It is not useful for online poker players but whenever dealing with live poker, tournament or cash game, you want to know the information inside the book.
- Readability: 9 out of 10
- Examples: 9 out of 10
- Advice Quality: 9.5 out of 10
- Advice Accuracy For Current Play: 6 out of 10
- Information Offered: 9 out of 10
- Overall: 8.5 out of 10