Others say...

"10 pages of content and 188 pages of filler"
This book is pretty bad. It has a few useful tidbits of info if you are willing to wade through pages and pages of filler material. I strongly suggest anyone considering purchase go to a bookstore and examine the book first. Here are some things you will find:

1. Look at the print - it's practically double-spaced.

2. It's filled with unnecessary full-page photos. For example, look at page 168, where a full-page photo shows what whistling looks like.

3. It reuses photos. Look at pages 34 and 87. Notice anything? Entire page taken up with exactly the same photos. The captions are slightly different, but basically say the same thing.

4. It reuses content. Everything is repeated over and over and over again. There are countless examples of this throughout the book.

5. The writing is very long-winded. Open to any random page and read a few lines and you'll see what I mean. Here's an example: pages 133 to 137 describe a single tell called a tongue-jut, including a full-page photo to show what it looks like. Here's what those 5 pages say: if a player flicks his tongue between his teeth for a second, he feels like he got away with something. That's it. 5 pages.

6. The Phil Hellmuth anecdotes are self-promoting, uninteresting and basically useless to the reader. Is anyone surprised by this? To see what I mean, flip through the book and read any section with a gray background. For example, on page 137, Phil begins a 3-page story about how great he was at reading Howard Lederer in a certain hand.

And so on...

The cover of the book tells us that Joe Navarro wrote the book with Marvin Karlins, but it's presented by Phil Hellmuth. What this means is: Joe wrote up everything he could think of and only came out with about 10 pages of actual content. They hired Marvin to spread that out to a full book, but still came up short. So they added Phil Hellmuth to give his endorsement and write a bunch of anecdotes to stretch the story even more. Finally, they threw in a bunch of photos to get up to about 200 pages, still a minimal length for a reference book on poker.

Don't take my word on this - go to a bookstore and look for yourself.

p.s. I'm not a huge fan of Mike Caro's book either. It's just so old. There definitely is a need for a modern, well-written book about poker tells. Anyone have any ideas?

"A self-hyped ripoff of Mike Caro's classic!"
First, let me say that I wouldn't give a great poker book a good review because I don't want to have somebody I'm playing against getting smarter by reading it. But, having been a dumb donkey for buying this book, I'm disgusted enough to tell others that it is such a worthless ripoff of Mike Caro's classic BOOK OF TELLS that it is a shame it was printed. More shameful is that I bought it. Page after page, the author praises his powers of observation and his expensive seminars. He promises that reading his book and, yes, attending his seminars, will make you a great pro. Much of this self-hype sounds like a used-car salesman talking about the beauty he's going to sell you if you act today.

All the photos are ridiculous, but even funnier is the section about feet. Sure, if somebody is sitting right next to you, I guess you can see if they have their feet wrapped around their chair legs, but players who sit for hours and hours tend to do all kinds of things with their feet and legs that have nothing to do with the hand they are in. When somebody first arrives at a table, for instance, they are often fresh and a little excited, so they will have their feet "ready for action." But after just a little while, we relax and just try to keep our knees from locking up and our toes from going numb. You can look at my feet under the table all you want--if it helps you read me, great!

The biggest laughs are in the section about how to hide your own tells: Act like a robot, wear a hat and sunglasses, and cover your mouth and nose with your hands. Hey, who said poker was supposed to be fun?

Mr. Helmuth contributes a few stories from tourneys in which he made mind-boggling lay-downs or bluffs based on somebody biting a lip or looking scared. Otherwise, this mess belongs entirely to Mr. Navarro.

I gave this a second star for the introduction in which the author does make a good, strong case for developing observation powers away from the table and not only while in the heat of battle. (See, I am trying to be fair!) But that is only about seven pages, not enough to shell out the bucks for.

If you do decide to get this book, keep it a secret, because any decent, experienced poker player who knows you bought it will laugh at you until you cry.

A final note: I have noticed that poker books stand out as being dog-piled praised by everybody the author ever sat next to at a table. What a back-slapping, good-old-boy club they have going for most of the books. Fortunately, all the false praise makes it very difficult for readers to know which ones can really help their game!

"Simplified presentation but full of good stuff"
Not quite finished with the book (although it is an exceedingly quick read) but I am well enough along to recognize the value in Joe's lessons on limbic responses at the card table. Joe's observations are categorized and rated according to strength. I feel like I have much more artillery in the observational arsenal.

"Worth the money..."
I liked this book a lot. It has a lot of useful information about not only reading tells from your opponents, but also making sure to be aware of not giving off tells yourself. I believe once you feel you have a solid all-around live game, this is a great adjunct to enabling you to read situations better when you are in a 50-50 decision. While the book didn't blow me away, I still think it's a worthwhile read.

"Tremendous for Tells"
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be a serious poker player. When you read this book and use the techniques that Joe teaches it will open up a whole new world for you at the poker table. This is a no brainer to buy and read from cover to cover the minute it shows up on your door step. Navarro puts science and real life experience together for one heck of a poker tells book. I would NOT recommend this book to your poker buddies as they could pick you apart with the information they gather from this book.