Roy Cooke's article "Some of My Best Advice"

#1 11-30-2002, 05:54 PM

Congratulations to Roy Cooke for writing what I think is the very best article ever on poker play.

You can read it in the current edition of Card Player or on line at www.CardPlayer.com.

Barry Shulman

Howard Burroughs · #2 11-30-2002, 07:40 PM

It's a great article and I'm glad Roy wrote it. But best article ever written on poker play? My vote would have to be Sklansky's "Pros Versus Wannabes". With a close second, everything else ever written by Sklansky. Great Cooke article none the less. H.B.

Billy LTL · #3 12-01-2002, 01:03 AM

A well-written, concise article - I agree. But the best ever written?

The best for who? For a losing or breakeven player, with a year or so of experience under his/her belt, to use as a starting point to more further explore the ideas Mr. Cooke outlined in his article? Quite possibly.

But for others who've read a bit more, played a bit more, posted here a bit more? I didn't see any new information in the article at all, just a rehash of a subjects that are discussed daily here.

That being said I'm a new reader to the online Card Player so I don't really have an alternative candidate for the best poker article ever written. There are a number of essays here on 2+2 though that come pretty close to meeting the requirements.

Best of luck, Billy (LTL)

Mason Malmuth · #4 12-01-2002, 01:09 AM

Barry:

You should actually be thanking me. A short time after Linda Johnson took over Card Player, I sat down with Cooke and her and recommended that they try him out as a writer.

Best wishes,
Mason

#5 12-01-2002, 04:32 AM

Thank you Mason.
Barry

scalf · #6 12-01-2002, 08:12 AM

[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] yeah mason, right after you invented the internet...lol..gl [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]

Rick Nebiolo · #7 12-02-2002, 04:19 PM

Barry,

If there was one and only one Cooke article I could give to a student it was this one. It is a gem.

In the same issue, Jim Brier wrote a great article on his recent forays into higher limits ($80/$160) and his observations on the differences between mid limit and high limit play. As you probably know, Jim used to frequently post on this forum (and still does a bit less often). I’ll bet most of us who read this forum are rooting for him. He is a class act.

Regards,

Rick

J_V · #8 12-03-2002, 12:07 AM

lol, thats rich.

jen · #9 12-03-2002, 07:30 PM

Cooke's article has some sound, general advice. However, my favorite CardPlayer article was published a few months back and was written by Sklansky. It was his retrospective of interesting poker hands he'd seen over the years. Hilarious.

Jesse Richman · #10 12-03-2002, 08:41 PM

Having just read the article, I agree with the praise people are giving it, however there was one idea he brought up that didn't quite sit right with me; to wit

"The blind structure is a factor that dictates how you should play. If the game has a two-chip/three-chip blind, you need to play more aggressively, since the small blind is almost always correct in calling. A two-chip/four-chip blind structure makes trapping a play with higher value."

My real question is, is this correct? Should you be more aggressive? As far as I can reason, this situation seems analogous to there being an extra blind posted, where Mason has made it quite clear that you should call more and raise less due to the reduced possibility of stealing the blinds. Perhaps there's something I'm missing?