How to Play Like a Poker Pro

Roy Cooke and John Bond's CardPlayer Magazine column is the longest running poker feature in the world. This, their sixth book, is a continuation of their Real Poker II: The Play of Hands and a companion volume to their last book, How to Think Like a Poker Pro (both titles are also available from Amazon.com). It contains all their CardPlayer Magazine Play of Hand columns from 2000- 2006, edited and updated. Each essay takes you through a professional's thought process in the play of a hand, how to really analyze each decision to make or save the most at the poker table. Roy Cooke is one of the only poker writers I find worth reading. Doyle Brunson Roy Cooke's writing is the best limit hold em adivce anywhere. In fact, I learned more from reading Roy's articles in CardPlayer on limit hold em than any other source. He does a masterful job of walking you through a hand and teaches you the right way to think about a poker hand. Daniel Negreanu, 2003 Player of the Year Roy Cooke has made a living and built a life as a successful poker pro for ten years longer than I ve been alive. And some of my earliest poker was playing in John Bond's private Florida game, where people came for his stories as well as his action. What John and Roy have to say about the game is worth reading! Michael Grinder Mizrachi, multiple WPT winner and CardPlayer Magazine 2006 Player of the Year I Like Roy Cooke. I like his writing. I like his poker. He's a smart, honest guy in a world that has too many shady wannabes... Chris Jesus Ferguson, 2000 WSOP Champion

Roy Cooke started playing poker against professional competition at the age of 15, sneaking into cardrooms in the Seattle area. Since then he has played over 60,000 hours of poker all over the world, but mostly in the casino cardrooms of Las Vegas. He is generally recognized as one of the best middle-limit Texas Hold'em players in the world, and certainly the most consistent. Roy has been a featured columnist for CardPlayer Magazine for since 1992. He is a regular contributor to PokerBiz, the poker industry magazine. His first book with John Bond, Real Poker: The Cooke Collection, a collection of his columns, completely sold out. Real Poker II: The Play of Hands is in its second printing. Cooke's Rules of Real Poker is widely accepted as the standard in poker rules, the modern Hoyle. Their Home Poker Handbook is considered the most comprehensive material available on home games. Another collection, Real Poker IV: More Play of Hands, is forthcoming. Roy was the Cardroom Manager of the first real money Internet cardroom, and has been a consultant to many in the Internet poker business. He designed many of the anti-collusion protocols that are standard in the Internet poker industry today. He speaks at industry conferences both about marketing and about integrity issues. He has become the foremost spokesman for integrity efforts to protect players in the game generally and the Internet game particularly. He has also been a leading advocate of a centralized national poker association encompassing players, the industry and the media. Roy belongs to a number of community groups, including Toastmasters, where he is President of the Summerlin, Nevada chapter. He lives in Las Vegas where he and his wife Misty own a successful real estate brokerage. They live on a golf course with their daughter Krystle and three dogs. You can visit his real estate and poker website at www.roycooke.com

John Bond is a raconteur. A recreational poker player with nearly 15,000 hours of play, about half in private games. He has collaborated with Roy on his CardPlayer columns since the beginning. A retired attorney, among various other accomplishments he is a real estate developer, PADI Course Director (instructor of SCUBA instructors), USCG licensed commercial boat captain, and a licensed pilot and Realtor. A former newspaper editor, he has taught writing at a variety of institutions including Nova Southeastern University and Florida International University, Trinity College Dublin, the University of British Columbia and University College London. He writes travel features for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, is a former Miami Herald columnist and has a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. John is working on a series of mystery stories set in the world of private poker games, the first of which-T-bird-appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2007. He is also marketing a completed novel and screenplay set in the poker world. He lives near the ocean in Dania Beach, Florida with his wife Jeannie Deininger and their three shih tzus.