[Mason Malmuth]

Hi mxer:

I didn't think Real Poker I was awesome, and I suspect that Cooke didn't either. It was terribly written and the editing was even worse, plus it included a number of essays that were personal in nature and in my opinion a few were downright embarrassing.

But it also included some very good articles about the play of hands. So what Cooke did was he took the good articles and put them in a second book and added some other ones that he had written after the publication of the first book, thus producing Real Poker II. So I wouldn't bother with Real Poker I.

Best wishes,
Mason