Mike Caro’s Book of Poker Tells is one of the most popular poker books ever written. It has been a bestseller in the genre since its release in ‘The Year of Moneymaker’, 2003. Packed with tips about how to spot poker tells, as well as disguise them, the book has sold well every year since publication. But is it an outdated manual that could do with a rewrite including recent innovations into understanding body language or a poker bible that should be referred to as gospel?

Mike Caro himself is something of a literary machine, having written The Body Language of Poker, Bobby Baldwin’s Winning Poker Secrets, Caro’s Fundamental Secrets of Winning Poker, Professional Hold’em Play by Play and Poker for Women: A Course in Destroying Male Opponents at Poker and Beyond, as well as many others.

However, despite this love of literary prowess, Caro has never won a ranking event himself, and his cashes on The Hendon Mob total just $175,000, with his biggest score at $38,000. While this isn’t necessarily an indication that he doesn’t know how to teach a lot better than he plays, Caro’s success is in the theory.

Caro belongs to an older world of poker, and as such much be judged as something of a past-times curiosity rather than a modern-day guru. But should that stint his popularity if his identification and exploitation of poker tells still works? Of course not.