My name is Zach Elwood and I’m available for private consultation related to reading and interpreting human behavior in competitive games and other high-stakes situations.
I’m a former professional poker player, and the author of the renowned Reading Poker Tells trilogy of books (48K+ books and 1.2K+ video series sold; books translated into seven languages). I also host the People Who Read People podcast (60K+ views/listens per month), where I interview guests from a wide variety of professions on how they read, interpret, and make use of behavior — and where I also push back on the immense amount of bullshit in the behavior-reading space.
What I offer is a nuanced, no-nonsense, real-world approach to thinking about and trying to interpret and use human behavior. I will also tell you upfront if I think I can provide value: I’ve turned down quite a few requests for consultation due to believing I wouldn’t be of much help for their particular needs (e.g., in some cases, people would be better off just consuming some of my content first). Reach out to set up a free consultation.
A clip from a documentary I consulted for
Testimonials
“My overall view of the experience of working with [Zachary Elwood] is and was very positive… I learned a lot… I feel I got fantastic value.”
– Amir Lehavot, 3rd place 2013 WSOP Main Event
“Hiring Zach for the WSOP ME final table was a huge help in getting a feel for each of my opponents. [After going over his research], I had a fantastic feel for everyone at the table… I think working with him was a very important part of my preparation and I would absolutely recommend him to anyone about to play a big final table.”
– Max Steinberg, 4th place 2015 WSOP Main Event
“Working with Zach has had a huge impact on my live poker results and winrate. We do weekly video review sessions together… Zach is extremely helpful, both in identifying my own behavioral leaks and in breaking down opponent tendencies. He notices subtle details that most people miss and explains them in a simple and practical way. Zach is the top expert in terms of live tells. I highly recommend working with him.”
– high-stakes poker player who wishes to remain anonymous
Behavior-related consulting I’ve done
I consulted for Amir Lehavot during the 2013 WSOP Main Event (see testimonial above)
Some consulting gigs I’ve worked on:
- Assorted consulting/training for poker players, including but not limited to:
- Two WSOP Main Event players: Amir Lehavot (3rd place 2013), Max Steinberg (4th place, 2015)
- Three high-stakes cash game players who wish to remain anonymous
- Private poker tells training for a “stable” (a group of players with shared financial backing)
- Featured in a documentary about a well known boxer’s journey to get better at poker (watch clips)
- Consulting for a competitor on The Traitors (listen to an episode of mine talking about behavioral patterns on this show and other social deduction games)
Philosophy on teaching people/behavior-reading
As I make clear in my books and videos, tells are generally a small part of poker and other competitive, low-information games – especially when playing versus highly competent opponents. Even the best tell-reading poker players can go hours without basing a decision on a behavioral read.
But, that said, being good at reading tells can add substantially to a win rate. For one thing, some players have major behavioral leaks and so, at the very least, knowing how to read those players well will pay large dividends. For another, even reads that are far from 100% reliable can be quite powerful in games that often puts you in close spots from a fundamental strategy perspective. As in many other competitive games and sports, poker is a game of small edges applied over the long term.
I have a lot of thoughts about how making use of behavior can vary hugely based on the type of environment. Games and sports are environments where small nonverbal/verbal reads can play a substantial role, whereas this will hardly ever be the case for real-world, non-game scenarios like interrogation and interviews. There are a number of reasons for this. To hear some thoughts on the differences between game and non-game environments, check out this podcast episode.
Check out a video with praise for my poker tells work from some serious, high-stakes players.
Types of activities
The types of discussions and activities we’d do would vary depending on your particular needs, but here are a few activities I’ve done with clients:
- Reviewing poker footage with hole cards hidden and sound off, to minimize bias while looking for nonverbal patterns
- Focused analysis of specific players/people (e.g., going through dozens of hours of footage looking for spots with specific people)
- Reviewing game footage (e.g., The Traitors) together to talk about specific spots and what the psychological/behavioral dynamics were
I’m also a pretty skilled coder and user of AI tools. This means I’m able to create custom programs/scripts that can aid in analysis. For example, I created a program that parses video footage, looking for specific names/words onscreen; this aids me in parsing large amounts of poker footage to find specific poker players. I can do something similar with facial recognition; parsing large amounts of footage looking for specific faces. I have also played around with using face/body-tracking algorithms and machine learning algorithms to look for patterns (e.g., face and body movement patterns from players before or after making large bets).
Learn more about my approach
Here are some free resources that might help you understand my takes and views on making use of behavior in games and other environments:
- Episodes from my podcast about behavior bullshit/myths
- A talk with Zack Davies, contestant on The Traitors (British series, season 2), about behavioral patterns in that show
- A talk with Dara O’Kearney, pro poker player, on the importance of poker tells
- A talk about reading behaviors in social deduction games (like Werewolf, Mafia, The Traitors, more)
- My process for reviewing poker footage with a high-stakes player
Questions?
Have questions or want to schedule a free initial consult? Use my contact form.