The Book of Bluffs : How to Bluff and Win at Poker

I should probably preface this review by saying that I am an amatuer player that plays mostly low-medium stakes home games and online, with the occasional jaunt to the card rooms in AC and Connecticut. I think it goes without saying that this book is much more valuable to the No Limit player than the Limit player. But I said it anyways. There are so many hold-em books coming out nowadays that now we get the specialized, niche books like this one. And what a great book it is. Lessinger touches on everything from the simplest bluff that everyone knows (the pre-flop raise from the button when everyone folds to you) to a masterful bluff (such as calling a raise and bluffing after a re-raise.)
The bluffs are broken down into different chapters by category, such as "Attacking Weakness", "Representing Strength", "Online Bluffs", etc. Readers will be familiar with quite a few of the bluffs used in the book, either by word of mouth or from seeing them on TV. Everyone knows about Moneymaker's bluff against Farha, but not as many know about his bluff earlier in the tournament against Chuc Hoang, a hand that didn't make it onto TV, that Moneymaker called "the best hand I played during the entire WSOP." You will read about it in this book (Bluff #48) and it is equally as impressive (probably more, considering the circumstances) than his bluff against Farha. Without winning this hand, I question whether he would have had the opportunity (or the confidence) to bluff out Farha later on.
You can glean a lot of great stuff from this book. For one, I realized I shouldn't be happy when I semi-bluff, make my hand, and then get paid off by my opponent on the end. As Lessinger correctly states, it was a bluff, you just happened to have outs to fall back on. The fact that they called on the end should tell you that you shouldn't have been bluffing them in the first place. You should be happier with your play if you semi-bluff, make it, and then they fold on the end. That means you didn't need to make your hand, you could've continued betting and bluffed them out anyway. Sounds like common sense, but I honestly never thought about it that way until reading this book. I would just be happy that I made a hand and got paid off. You don't want to fall back on your outs, you want them to fold. It was another reminder that, to be a succesful player, you need to focus on your play and not just your results.
A fine addition to any poker library, this book is a natural fit to the aggressive players who come from the Brunson school of "attack, attack, attack." If you're a tighter, more mathematical player, then you absolutley need to read this book to expand your mind and take your game to the next level. Either way, if you want to learn when, how, and who to bluff, as well as keep yourself from being bluffed, this book will help you put that plan into action.