Categories: Poker News
| Published On Dec 29, 2013 7:00 am CET  |  Updated on May 2, 2021 11:58 am CEST | By iGaming Team

Former FBI Agent an expert on poker tells

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Joe Navarro, a former FBI agent with 25 years experience in the job, has started using all his talents and knowledge of behavioral analysis and non-verbal communication as his main assets when playing poker.

Back in 2005 when Navarro decided to shift his attention towards poker, the authority book on poker tells was Mike Caro’s “Book on Poker Tells”. The book was considered to be fascinating by industry people and amateurs alike and showcased about 50 different tells. Navarro and his colleague, professor Marvin Karlins, published a book in 2006 titled “Read ‘Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent’s Guide To Decoding Poker Tells” which instantly became a hit with live poker players.

Navarro explains the success of his book, “One of the things I noticed was that there was only about 50 tells there, and, to my surprise, a lot of them had to do with the hands and the face, but not the rest of the body. There was no mention of the neck, fingers, torso, feet etc. That sort of blew my mind, so when we wrote Read ‘Em and Reap, now all of a sudden we went from 50 tells to 140 tells”.