Poker News

Big Book of Bluffs by Matt Lessinger, 2005, 229pp, $13.95

Poker player and writer Matt Lessinger has zeroed in on a crucial matter that all players seek to learn, develop, cultivate and use as a deadly weapon in their arsenal of hold’em poker tricks. The subject is bluffingand Lessinger’s work is appropriately titled The Book of Bluffs.

Released in October 2005, the book has 11 substantial chapters, each jammed with illustrations, sample hands, and interviews with players who pulled off some of the biggest bluffs in modern poker history. This approach helps those who hate to bluff or fear bluffing or who often go on tilt once they’ve been bluffed. The entire scenario applies to some of the best known tournament and cash game names in the business, so the book serves every level of play.

Where most books have a basic chapter, section or discussion on bluffs, Lessinger takes it many degrees higher, honing it to a fine art to get us where we’d all like to be–way ahead and brave enough to keep plowing over the opposition even without a great hand.

Lessinger examines factors you’ll need to bluff successfully including the risk/reward ratio factor, how to uncover calling and betting patterns, and why (and when) we need to look to our left.

Lessinger looks at various types of bluffs, including techniques he calls “playing past the flop,” when the field checks once or twice. He helps fine tune the skills of the most aggressive players while actually teaching the timid players how to get more aggressive in a chapter called Attacking Weakness (Drawing Hands).

“When you’re bluffing, you don’t intend to ever show your hand, so your cards don’t matter. The more important thing is to accurately gauge your opponent’s strength, or lack thereof,” he advises. Like an Olympic gymnastic requirement, Lessinger offers his lessons by “degrees of difficulty” with a specific rate of success prediction. This formula should prove helpful to every level-if you work at it, experiment, be patient, know your opponents and the situation, and like a predator, leap at your opponent’s throat (bankroll) to catch him or her unaware.

Lessinger has clearly been influenced by some of the biggest names in the business as he draws inspiration from the likes of Doyle Brunson, Mike Caro, Stu Ungar and David Sklansky, among others giving them proper credit.

For the online player, he’s written a 15-page chapter involving “call and push” early and late stages and gives his advice on whether to use “auto-betting” (an option allowing you to click on a box or button that lets you select your play before the action reaches you).

Lessinger, born in the Bronx, now living in the Bay area, has written a much-needed book on a subject players have been asking for since the game went red-hot. The quality of writing and the price make it a must-have, must-read for every level player.

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