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Book Review on Read ‘Em and Reap
" Authored By Joe Navarro/FBI Agent Profiler – retired
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Tina Bergstrom
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By , WPN Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Another poker book. Just what the general poker playing public is waiting for? Well, anyone with half a brain will definitely want to read this one! Joe Navarro’s keenly honed skills as a FBI Profiler hits the nail on the head in analyzing tells among today’s poker players. From the beginning to the end, I found myself highlighting key appraisals and actually taking down notes to refer too at a later date.
I recently played in a WPT event where I put to test what I had learned from this book. To my own surprise I identified many more tells from the players at my tables than ever before. Not only was finding more tells the case, but I was more focused and alert to everything happening on my table. What a wake up call for my own game!
The book starts off with many generalizations of basic knowledge in identifying poker players tells. Observations made early on, as perceived as the “big picture”, where Joe makes you the overall table observer.
Following the next chapter is to identify the “kinds” of players sitting at your table.
1. Who is the neat stacker, the messy stacker, the relaxed sitter, the frozen player and the talker.
2. How do all the players look at their cards. How long does it take them to make a movement?
3. How do players rake their chips after winning a pot? What kind of facial expressions do they have in doing so?
4. Learn the players intentions. Bluffing, weaknesses and strengths.
5. Body placement. Is the player demonstrating confidence?
More chapters delve into your own tells and how to conceals them. How do you perceive your own movements? Do you cover them well enough not to be read by your opponents? Following the outline Joe so meticulously describes can be reversed knowledge in how to cover your own tells. Surprisingly enough, Joe also precisely points out the very obvious of actions that translate into your own tells.
Ever get annoyed by the loud mouth at the table? We watch intently the attention grabber on televised poker events every day. Has it ever dawned on you that this personality is hard at work to put whatever player he can on tilt? Or maybe this aggressive player surrounds his game strategy based on his verbal and aggressive nature. Joe Navarro effectively illustrates ways to overcome such a player, emphasizing ways to block out and combat this kind of personality so that you might continue to play solid reasoned poker.
In summarizing Read Em and Reap, I can honestly attest to the accuracy of the book in relation to going out and putting the tools to work for myself. In one sitting, tournament environment, I played one of my very few flawless solid games. Although I did go deep into the tournament without making the cash, I went away from the tournament with the satisfied feeling of playing the best game I could have played with the benefit of reading and using the methods from Read Em and Reap.
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