Poker Book Review: Beyond Tells by James A. Mckenna

This book endeavors to marry "The Psychology of Poker" by Schoonmaker, with Caro's Book of Poker Tells. The overriding theme is that Caro's Tells have to be interpreted in terms of the personality of the person making the tell and the specific circumstance when the suspected tell is being made.

The author presents six personality types, that corresponds to Schoonmaker's matrix of Tight/Loose and Passive/Aggressive play. The difference is that McKenna bases it on personality type, instead of Poker play. However, he shows that the latter is a reflection of the former, so both systems are analogous. (McKenna comes up with six types because he distinguishes between extreme Loose/Aggressive (which he terms "Party Hardy", instead of Maniac) and a less extreme form that he terms "High Roller". Likewise, the extreme form of Tight/Passive he associates with a Loner personality, and a less extreme form that he characterizes as a "System Player".)


He describes each type in terms of: their perception of life, their personality style, strengths and weaknesses, general body language, traits and preferences, and the percent of the US population that fit each category. He not only discusses how to identify these types (as is done by Schoonmaker), but goes a step beyond to discuss how they relate to others, how to relate to them and how to setup a pleasing atmosphere for them.

My main fault with the book is that the first 90 pages are more "psychology of life" and are not directly focused on Poker. He is laying the groundwork for the following, but you can skim this material without much loss. There are then 100 pages associated with defining the player types and how this influences their tells. There are then another 20 pages of general psychology. The most useful part of this book is contained in a 4-page Appendix where he reinstates Caro's tells and how they are influenced by player type. You need the preceding material to fully understand this appendix, so this is more than a four-page book.

Read Caro's book first, or this one will not make very much sense. It is also an interesting adjunct to "The Psychology of Poker". This book is very useful if you have not figured out that Caro's tells can be misleading for some people, i.e., passive players respond passively, even when they are not trying to feign weakness and aggressive players can play aggressively even when they have a good hand. McKenna tries to give some guidance as to how to distinguish "normal" play from an attempt to mislead. His guidance is somewhat general, however, but still useful if it gets one to think "Beyond Tells". Solomon-San


Beyond Bluffs: Master the Mysteries of Poker by James A McKenna

With a PhD and decades of experience as a practicing therapist, James McKenna should be a good source of information on the psychology of poker. He has a couple of interesting ideas: He categorizes players based on Jungian personality types (the source of the Meyers-Briggs personality test) and describes their bluffing tendencies and what tells to look for.

Unfortunately, his prose is sloppy, many of his concepts half baked, and the majority of his text is one vague generalization after another, ultimately saying nothing. He even confuses bluffing with betting for value. Despite his rampant verbosity, he offers few actionable suggestions. After reading it you will be no closer to mastering the "mysteries" of poker. Don't fall for the author's bluff by buying this book. Seth Baldwin (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

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