Real Poker II: The Play of Hands
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 casinos 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. He has been a featured columnist for Card Player Magazine for nearly fifteen years. His first book, Real Poker: The Cooke Collection, a collection of his columns, completely sold out. He was a pioneer in the Internet poker industry as the Cardroom Manager of the first Internet poker room. In that role, he defined the standards for anti-collusion efforts around the world. His most recent book, Cooke’s Rules of Real Poker, is the only definitive collection of rules of poker in the modern era of the game. He belongs to a number of community groups, including Toastmasters. Roy 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. JOHN BOND is a retired attorney and recreational poker player. 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’s a former Miami Herald columnist, is regularly featured in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and has a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Among various other accomplishments he is a PADI Course Director (Instructor of SCUBA Instructors), USCG licensed commercial boat captain, licensed pilot, and Realtor. He lives by the ocean in Dania Beach, Florida, with his wife, Jeannie Deininger, and their two shih tzus.