Poker Books by John Bond

Roy Cooke and John Bond continue their long-running CardPlayer Magazine column, which is the world’s longest-running poker feature. This book, their sixth, is a follow-up to Real Poker II: The Play of Hands and a companion to  How to Think Like a Poker Pro.  It compiles and updates their CardPlayer Magazine Play of Hand columns from 2000 to 2006, with each essay guiding readers through a professional’s thought process in playing a hand and analyzing every decision to maximize profits or minimize losses at the poker table.

This book contains everything you need to know about starting and finding a game, running your home game, and the necessary equipment. It also covers home poker etiquette, basic poker strategy and tactics, and how to organize home poker tournaments. It even discusses the business aspect of house games. You’ll learn about spits, buys, wild cards, royalties, side bets, forced betting, chip declare, and over 75 poker variations, including variations on those variations! Additionally, it provides guidance on dealing with cheats, credit, shies, split pots, spouses, and legal issues.

The book provides a uniform set of rules for the most popular poker games played in public cardrooms, prioritizing fairness, efficiency, simplicity, and tradition. The authors have consulted the rulebooks of nearly every major cardroom in the country and have chosen rules that best serve these interests, while also considering the importance of inducing action in the game. The book presents the preferred rule for each situation first, followed by alternate rules if applicable, and includes explanatory notes, examples, definitions, and appendices for suggested procedures. Although some players and cardroom managers may not agree with all the rules included, the authors hope that the comprehensiveness of Cooke’s Rules of Real Poker will lead to its adoption as a standard in cardrooms across the country, with the flexibility for cardrooms to adopt the rules as they stand or modify them according to house policy.