I, Zach Elwood, am 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; first book translated in seven languages). I also host the People Who Read People podcast (65K+ 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 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. 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)
- Consulting for a documentary covering a boxer’s journey to improve at poker (watch clips)
- Consulting for someone competing in The Traitors reality TV show (a social deduction game)
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 people-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, because poker is a game that often puts you in close spots from a fundamental strategy perspective. As with many competitive games, poker is a game of small edges applied over the long term.
I have a lot of thoughts about how making use of behavior varies 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. If you’re curious to hear me talk about these differences more, check out this episode of my podcast about the difficulties of reading/using behavior for deception detection in real-world environments; toward the end, I talk about how making use of behavior in game environments is totally different.
Check out a video with praise for my poker tells work from some serious, high-stakes players.
Learn more about my approach
Some of my resources that relate to my approaches in helping people read people:
- A talk about reading behaviors in social deduction games (like Werewolf, Mafia, The Traitors, more)
- Episodes from my podcast about behavior bullshit/myths
- My process for reviewing poker footage with a high-stakes player
- Some possible poker tells in the 2013 WSOP ME
Questions?
Have questions or want to schedule a free initial consult? Use my contact form.