Beyond Tells: Power Poker Psychology

In poker, it's not enough to play your own cards well. Knowing how to read other players, gauge their hands, spot their weaknesses�these are the skills that enable you to chart a winning course of action, no matter what cards you're dealt.

In Beyond Tells, noted psychotherapist and poker columnist James A. McKenna, Ph. D., shows you how to anticipate players' behavior by analyzing their physical and mental approaches to the game. Other poker books describe generic tells�the facial expressions and body language that can reveal when an opponent is bluffing or trying to conceal a great hand. But many experienced players know how to mask and mimic those tells. Beyond Tells goes further�it is the first book to integrate personality types and poker tells. It shows how different personality types can have the same tell and it will mean something entirely different. It teaches you how to categorize opponents and read their underlying motivations so that you can predict their actions�and, most importantly, know how to beat them.

Dividing players into three core personality groups�Winners, Losers, and Non-winners�McKenna explores the beliefs, skills, and permissions that unconsciously guide each type's behavior. You'll learn to recognize key playing styles, including the Loner, the High Roller, the Hunch Player, and the Boss, and you'll discover how to identify and eliminate any self-defeating patterns in your own game.

Filled with fascinating anecdotes, charts, and photographs that illustrate key behaviors, Beyond Tells is an engaging, practical, and thoroughly accessible guide that will give you the psychological edge you need to play�and live�like a winner.

James A. McKenna, Ph.D., has been a practicing individual and group therapist for over 35 years, as well as a management consultant to Fortune 500 corporations. His column, "Power Poker Psychology," appears regularly in Poker Player and Gambling Times magazines