Caros Book of tells

Gholimoli

Seen as im intending to play alot more live games, im just wondering if people who have read this book think it’s a good one and worth reading?
Currently when i play live, i try my best to figure out a "tell" but don’t come up with anything at all .i’ve seen people on TV staring at the villain and then they cards, take a glance of the board and then another stare at villain and boom, it suddenly comes to them and they make a great call or fold.
I try that and boom; I make an incorrect call or fold.

Culchie

Gholimoli wrote:

Seen as im intending to play alot more live games, im just wondering if people who have read this book think it’s a good one and worth reading?
Currently when i play live, i try my best to figure out a "tell" but don’t come up with anything at all .i’ve seen people on TV staring at the villain and then they cards, take a glance of the board and then another stare at villain and boom, it suddenly comes to them and they make a great call or fold.
I try that and boom; I make an incorrect call or fold.

Gholi, I'll lend you the book if you want, don't waste your money buying it.

Pictures are terrible, and I didn't find the book helpful at all to be honest.

I was the same after reading the book, trying to base decisions from pictures in my head, despite gut instinct saying otherwise. Gut was 90% right.

hotspur

If you want to know when an a 1970's pimp is bluffing it isn't too bad! I would say it's worth a flick through some day, but it isn't great.

ollyk1

The best bit of advice I ever read in relation to playing live and tells was to concentrate on the two players to your immediate left for the first few rounds. Watch how they play their blinds and what they do when they are going to raise or limp or fold. After watching them closely for 20-30 minutes if they don't care about giving away this info (and in the small tournies around town they generally don't) you are effectively playing with postion +2 on every hand and on every round. This is invaluable.

In relation to Caro's book it's good from the point of view it gets you thinking about this portion of the live game and what things mean from certain players but you need to work it into your game carefully and based on your own experience. Certain tells it discusses are very useful and can pay for the book in one hand. Most are sh1te as Culchie says.

ocallagh

I started the book and made it a few chapters in before I gave up. A lot of people swear by it, but I just didn't get into it. Caro waffles on and on and pads every concept with about 10 pages of tripe. Some of the concepts may be of use... but be prepared for a boring read. I'd advise taking notes while reading it - I wish I had.. I couldn't be arsed reading it again but I know I've forgotten some of the key concepts he talked about.

Also, because so many poker players have read it, it might be an advantage to know what tells they are looking for!!

I'd advise reading it but I wasn't mad on it.. If he ever publishes a compact version I'd probably buy it.

ntlbell

Gholimoli wrote:

Seen as im intending to play alot more live games, im just wondering if people who have read this book think it’s a good one and worth reading?
Currently when i play live, i try my best to figure out a "tell" but don’t come up with anything at all .i’ve seen people on TV staring at the villain and then they cards, take a glance of the board and then another stare at villain and boom, it suddenly comes to them and they make a great call or fold.
I try that and boom; I make an incorrect call or fold.

When you see this on tele, that player has probably been watching the other player for hours, they're not just staring at them then suddenly figure it all out because there was a slight gulp.

If I'm in a hand that comes to "staring down" I'm just re-attaching the players face to try and bring back his play and actions in previous hands and see if what he's doing now coincides with it. The look of the board does the play make sense from his previous betting etc etc

There's no point chatting away at a table when your not in a hand and not concentrating on players if you want to just suddenly get a tell when your involved in a big pot and expect to make a great call by looking at him for 5 minutes.

I'm not looking into his soul for the hole cards.

I think it was dev said in a thread a few months back about "selling tells" and this is far more important to my game and alot easier to learn and do well than making magical reads.

just my 2c

Culchie

In this day and age anyway, surely the best medium for the subject of tell is on DVD or something.

lol, the photos in Caros book look like something from Starsky and Hutch heyday.

jtsuited

is it just me or everytime i read anything by or about caro, i start to think he's completely lost it. boring read but makes you pay attention as olly pointed out.

cardshark202

Culchie wrote:

In this day and age anyway, surely the best medium for the subject of tell is on DVD or something.

lol, the photos in Caros book look like something from Starsky and Hutch heyday.

Then why not get Caro's video of tells?:v:

Culchie

cardshark202 wrote:

Then why not get Caro's video of tells?:v:

lol, if it has the same gang he has in the book, it would be worth getting for comedy reasons anyway.

Good tell section in Annie Dukes DVD as well.

ntlbell

cardshark202 wrote:

Then why not get Caro's video of tells?:v:

Just hand out oreo cookies at the games and watch how they eat em...

Gholimoli

thanks for all the replys folks.
i think i will read it just to get an idea of what sort of things i should be looking for and also what sort of action others are looking to find from me.
Culchi i think i will take you up on that offer.
in exchange i have shyt load of actually good books if you ever want alon of one or two.

ocallagh

Gholimoli wrote:

thanks for all the replys folks.
i think i will read it just to get an idea of what sort of things i should be looking for and also what sort of action others are looking to find from me.
Culchi i think i will take you up on that offer.
in exchange i have shyt load of actually good books if you ever want alon of one or two.

I have about 12 books which I can lend/swap too... a boards library might be an idea!

Gholimoli

ocallagh wrote:

I have about 12 books which I can lend/swap too... a boards library might be an idea!

agreed .
i think its a very good idea .some books you feel like you just have to have a copy of and you end up buying.but there are alot of books that you can do by just reading once and i think a board's library is an ideal solution for that.

jtsuited

boards library!!!! Now there's the best idea ever. EVER!
I've got harrington volume 1, super system2, and sklansky's theory of poker if anyone needs them.
Maybe a sticky for this type of malarky?

shoutman

I have harraingtons first and super sytem 2, as well. JT you didnt by chance get these on a two for one deal off amazon did you?

mewso

I'm still missing books from the informal library that started out during the last bsop. I'm with ocallagh on this one. Couldn't stick with it. I think you will very likely already be aware of most of the concepts in this book. I was surprised but then it's an old book.

Scotty #

jtsuited wrote:

boards library!!!! Now there's the best idea ever. EVER!
I've got harrington volume 1, super system2, and sklansky's theory of poker if anyone needs them.
Maybe a sticky for this type of malarky?

Ordered Harrington on friday after Culchie and the Snapper told me they swear by it, anyone else find it helpful? Already have Super System which I think is aimed more at high stakes cash games than anything plus its for someone who is playing a few years already IMO.

Maybe a book/dvd review sticky would be helpful rather than a library?

EDIT: Ooops!! Just saw the new thread!!

ntlbell

Scotty # wrote:

Ordered Harrington on friday after Culchie and the Snapper told me they swear by it, anyone else find it helpful?

Yep very very helpfull, to get the best from them IMO you really need to read them more than once, first time round reading them my game became very tight, once i studied them a bit more and got a better understanding it actually loosened me up quite a bit and the results started to change quite a bit.

I'm now a nice mixture of gus hansen and dan harrington :P

Marq

If you play cash games, Caro's book will probably pay for itself four fold the first time you play after having read it. I would be surprised if having read it didn't contribute to you making a call you would not have made otherwise at some point in the near future.

Gholimoli

Scotty # wrote:

Ordered Harrington on friday after Culchie and the Snapper told me they swear by it, anyone else find it helpful? Already have Super System which I think is aimed more at high stakes cash games than anything plus its for someone who is playing a few years already IMO.

Maybe a book/dvd review sticky would be helpful rather than a library?

EDIT: Ooops!! Just saw the new thread!!

simply the best book on no limit holdem.

Scotty #

ollyk1 wrote:

The best bit of advice I ever read in relation to playing live and tells was to concentrate on the two players to your immediate left for the first few rounds. Watch how they play their blinds and what they do when they are going to raise or limp or fold. After watching them closely for 20-30 minutes if they don't care about giving away this info (and in the small tournies around town they generally don't) you are effectively playing with postion +2 on every hand and on every round. This is invaluable.

Also I find looking at your opponent when the cards land rather than at the cards themselves can give you a lot of info and is a good habit to get into. (you'd be amazed at how often the eyes go up to heaven)

ntlbell

Scotty # wrote:

Also I find looking at your opponent when the cards land rather than at the cards themselves can give you a lot of info and is a good habit to get into. (you'd be amazed at how often the eyes go up to heaven)

Carefull, my eyes go to heaven when i flop the nuts

Lafortezza

musician wrote:

I'm still missing books from the informal library that started out during the last bsop. I'm with ocallagh on this one. Couldn't stick with it. I think you will very likely already be aware of most of the concepts in this book. I was surprised but then it's an old book.

Sorry Muso, I have your Carson book, I'm a very very very slow reader
I'll give it back to you at the BSOP!