The book on tells, this illustrated guide to ticks, twitches and betting patterns is a very good read; especially for a live player.

Caro writes very clearly and explains his concepts well - each tell is illustrated and explained and a scenario in which it might be useful is given. It’s an idiot-proof guide to a very complex thing, i.e. the psychology of reading people.

Online players will get less out of this than live players will, as many of the tells are actions people make - in fact, I would not recommend this for an online player. In all fairness, though, the amusingly anachronistic hairstyles are proof that this book was written far before the age of online play. Also, you will need a grasp of Stud and Draw poker in order to understand all the situations.

All in all a serious live player cannot be without this book, and I would advise any online players who wish to give live play a shot to peruse this text also. Many of these tells are still very common today.

In answer to yesterday’s conundrum, I would say that c, $7,000 is a good amount. It’s 35 buy-ins for NL200 but that amount allows Bob to be aggressive and take shots at NL400 and play some high-variance MTTs.

Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book is aimed for beginning-to-intermediate players and is a very good read for a player of that level. It introduces slightly more advanced concepts than your archetypical low-level book such as pot odds, blind stealing and semi-bluffing.

These concepts are written well, and Phil explains them in a simplified manner without being condescending. I first read this book when I was aware of most of the strategies he explained; I still, however, found it to be worth reading - it’s always good to get a fresh insight on things.

If you know the basics of Texas Hold ‘em and you’d like to advance your game I would reccomend this as the ideal purchase. Phil also has a DVD called Final Table Poker that illustrates some of the same things in this book in a visual format. I’ll review that at some other point.

Lots of people have trouble with this very simple and fundamental concept in poker, both live and online - I’ve put this in the online poker section, though, as that’s where most people try to build bankrolls.

When deciding how big your bankroll should be you should look at a number of things:

-How much money can you afford to lose? If you only have a part-time job earning $150 a week then it’s not a good idea to start off playing anything higher than the very smallest stakes (this applies even if you’re a poker God).

-What’s your game like? If you’re a Hellmuth-esque nit then you can probably go with the bare minimum of 20-25 buyins. If your game is wildly loose and bluffy then max out. I know one guy who plays NL5 with an $800 roll - he’s a total freakin’ nit when it comes to bankroll management but at least he’ll never go broke. He probably needs it anyway; he raises suited connectors under the gun.

For a solid, tight player who isn’t too aggressive, 20 buy-ins is probably enough for full ring cash games, with 25-30 for 6-max. A tight-aggressive player probably needs 25-30 for full ring and 35-40 for 6-max. If you’re an incarnation of Sam Farha go with 50+.

These are all NLHE guides - I’ll leave it to Nima to write the limit section.

I would say have 5x the roll for tourneys that you do for cash - there is far more variance, especially in MTTs. In single-table sit’n'goes you can probably afford to have only a little more in your bankroll than if you’re a cash player. In turbo STTs, you need literally hundreds of buy-ins.

Let’s use an example - Bob is a solid player, who prefers shorthanded cash games playing no limit hold ‘em. He also plays tournaments. His cash game is quite tight for 6-max but he is aggressive; he runs something like 22/18/4.

He plays NL200 but when he’s on a good upswing he’ll occassionally take a shot at NL400. He plays a lot of MTTs, usually freezeouts with a $25-$50 buy-in and some single-table tourneys of the same level, but not many. What is a sensible sized bankroll for him?

a) $4000

b) $15,000

c) $7,000

Answers on a postcard, please - I’ll post tomorrow.

Ciao.