POCKET ACES

Poker's Other Language: The Latest in Poker Tells

Even though Mike Caro's original book on tells caused a stir in the poker community, the concept of reading people remained an enigma to most players. The sharp individuals who studied the subject often went even further, looking for additional material that might add to their ability to read people according to their body language.

Until recently, however, this whole idea of figuring out what's going on in a person's mind by looking at their eyes or mouth or neck or arms among other bodily attributes went fairly unmentioned in poker tomes. That's the way it was until Joe Navarro, a former FBI guy, decided to share his skills with the poker population in a book titled "Read'em and Reap."

Navarro honed his skills in reading non-verbal communication during a long career in counterintelligence and counterterrorism. I don't know how he learned what he learned but I'm glad he did. I'm even happier that he teamed with Phil Hellmuth to bring this information into the poker age. (For those of you who don't care much for Phil, don't worry. His input into the text is a mere introduction. For those who care for Phil, don't worry. He learned a lot about tells from Navarro and introduced him to the poker public.)

Where Caro's tells came at a time when nobody wore sunglasses in the poker room, Navarro's text arrives when all the young studs think they can hide their intentions behind shades. But as Phil points out in his introduction, Navarro pointed out his costly tell and it had nothing to do with the eyes. While watching Phil on TV, Navarro noticed that every time Phil bluffed, he hugged himself, as if to reassure himself that he was safe. (Apparently Phil's opponent caught that tell as well.)

Years ago, T.J. Cloutier told me he could read players better than he could read cards and that most opponents will give their hands away somehow. Even with that confidence, Hellmuth points out in the intro that he and Cloutier both took pages and pages of notes while attending a Navarro seminar.

While some of the stuff discussed in "Read'em and Reap" are textbook, the approach is to show how, as with Hellmuth's hug, they relate to poker. Sitting up suddenly, tossing chips into the pot in a wide arc, touching your mouth or nose, clasping your hands behind your head all tell your opponents exactly what you are thinking.

After reading Navarro's book, it's a good idea to pick up a copy of "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Poker Tells" by the duo of Bobbi Dempsey and Andy Bloch. Here the authors break down their information according the five different personality types. The detail here is not as focused, but, the generalizations are buffered with definitions and explanations that tie into the body language theory. Dempsey and Bloch give strong evidence concerning real tells and fake tells and put emphasis on watching your own body language.

While studying others, you might think about having someone watch you as you play. If you're like most players, you don't realize how you are telling the truth in a game that requires the most subtle of lies.