Skimming The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Texas Hold'em

[steamboatin]

Well quit talking about it and GET ER DUN!

[Mason Malmuth]

You obviously didn't read this book. First it was the worse editing job I ever saw. You couldn't go five or ten words without there being some sort of gramatical or syntax error. Second, it was filled with much personal material that never should of been published and probably greatly irritated the people Cooke was talking about.

So it was correct to dump this book and come out with Cooke II.

MM

[Randy Burgess]

It's always possible to unintentionally irritate someone you write about - but on the whole, Cooke's columns strike me as humanistic and sympathetic, not nasty and vengeful. Here's my review of both books, from "Stepping Up":

"Real Poker: The Cooke Collection" and "Real Poker II: The Play of Hands," both by Roy Cooke with John Bond.

Both these books are collections of Cooke's columns from Card Player magazine, and both are worth owning.

The first time I picked up "The Cooke Collection," however, I was disappointed, and in fact didn't think much of the book. Cooke wrote only about hold'em, I saw by thumbing the pages, while I was strictly a stud player. "Why doesn't he write about anything else?" I thought, before putting the book aside.

Two years later I was a confirmed hold'em junkie. Dimly remembering Cooke, I picked him up again--and quickly got lost in the same pages I had previously dismissed as too limited. Cooke (as ghosted through the pen of John Bond) writes engagingly about the thought process of a top player--about, as he puts it, "flowcharting" his options as he plays a hand from beginning to end. If hold'em is your game, Cooke makes for a great role model, even if you'll probably never duplicate his depth of thinking.

Cooke is a great role model (and great reading) for still another reason: he's open about presenting his humiliations in print. Feeling discouraged, he folds on the turn where he should have called--and watches the river card fall that would have won him a monster pot. Trying to impress a pretty girl, he calls when he knows he should fold--and kicks himself for it afterwards, just as we all kick ourselves for dumb plays. Where so many poker writers pretend to be without blemish, Cooke offers himself up as a human being.

Speaking of human frailties, "The Cooke Collection" includes columns addressing the pitfalls of taking poker too seriously and letting it distort your life, while "The Play of Hands" is only about poker at the table. These extra columns are so interesting, and so valuable to the recreational player, that I'd recommend starting with "The Cooke Collection" first.

[MRBAA]

Thanks for the review -- I think it's very fair. It's really, really, really important to remember this a short "least you need to know" introduction for someone who either has NEVER played or who has played a little bit, casually and has no idea about strategy. So when we talk in terms of the flop changing everything, or of the value of knocking people out in late rounds of a tourney, it's to introduce those basic ideas, not to suggest an advanced strategy based on those observations. Randy and I both believe (and it was our goal in writing this book) that someone who played .50-$1 online or live $2-4 could become a modest winner if they read this book and applied themselves. Chances are, someone with the determination and ability to to do this will quickly move on to other material as well, of course.

The intended audience isn't bad players, but it was amazing sitting at a full table of regulars last week, all of whom I'd guess are losers for life, and seeing how none saw any need for this (or any other) book.