Roy Cooke is a professional poker player, poker consultant and author living in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, USA. He was born in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, on April 12, 1957. He spent his childhood in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

(England) and

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...

. Before taking up poker full-time, he attended the University of Washington where he majored in computer science. Cooke has been a licensed real estate broker in Las Vegas since 1990. He is a member of the

Summerlin Summerlin is a master-planned mixed-use development mostly within the city limits of Las Vegas, Nevada. The development covers of the western edge of incorporated Las Vegas sitting at the center-west end of the Las Vegas Valley. Downtown Summ ...

chapter of

Toastmasters Toastmasters International (TI) is a US-headquartered nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping people develop communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. History On 24 March 1905, Dr ...

, of which he was president in 2006. He is married to the former Francine Piano (Misty). They have one daughter, Krystle, born on August 16, 1992.

Poker career

Cooke started playing poker in public cardrooms as a 15-year-old in Washington State in 1972. He took up the game full-time in 1975. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, he was a nomadic player — a "rounder" — traveling from town to town looking for games in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Reno, Nevada. In 1984, Cooke moved to Las Vegas. He has played regularly with many WSOP champions including

Johnny Moss Johnny Moss (May 14, 1907 – December 16, 1995) was a gambler and professional poker player. He was the first winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, at the time a cash game event in which he was awarded the title by the vote of ...

Berry Johnston Berry Enfield Johnston (born September 25, 1935) is an American professional poker player. He is best known as the 1986 World Champion, but he has also won four other bracelets at the World Series of Poker in addition to cashes and wins in many ...

Tom McEvoy Thomas K. McEvoy (born November 14, 1944, in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a professional poker player, author and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, 2013 inductee. He is best known for winning the 1983 World Series of Poker Main Event. Early lif ...

Carlos Mortensen Juan Carlos Mortensen (born 13 April 1972, in Ambato, Ecuador) is an Ecuadorian professional poker player of Danish descent and the first South American Main Event winner of the World Series of Poker. Mortensen is known for his loose play, blu ...

Scotty Nguyen Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn (born October 28, 1962) is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player who is a five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event an ...

Daniel Negreanu Daniel Negreanu (; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player who has won seven World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. In 2014, independent poker ranking service Global Poker ...

and

Phil Hellmuth Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record seventeen World Series of Poker bracelets, the majority in no-limit hold'em. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Se ...

. The game Cooke most frequently plays is Limit

Texas Hold’em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in t ...

, although he forays somewhat regularly into No-Limit Hold’em. He has played almost 65,000 hours of poker live and online.

Author

Since 1992, Cooke has, with his collaborator and co-author John Bond, written a poker column, "Real Poker", for ''

Card Player Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position. Position Games of Anglo-American origin In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...

'' magazine, where he is senior columnist. It is reputedly the longest continuously running poker feature in the world. The forewords to Cooke and Bond's books have been written by major poker figures

David Sklansky David Sklansky (born December 22, 1947) is an American professional poker player and author. An early writer on poker strategy, he is known for his mathematical approach to the game. His key work ''The Theory of Poker'' presents fundamental pr ...

Mike Caro Mike A. Caro (born May 16, 1944) is an American professional poker player, pioneer poker theorist, author of poker books, and casino executive. Author In 1978 Caro contributed 50 statistical tables to Doyle Brunson's ''Super/System'' and wrote ...

, Linda Johnson,

Mike Sexton Michael Richard Sexton (September 22, 1947September 6, 2020) was an American professional poker player and commentator. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009. Early years Sexton was a gymnast and attended Ohio State University, wh ...

, Daniel Negreanu,

Chris Ferguson Christopher Philip Ferguson (born April 11, 1963) is an American professional poker player. He has won six World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ferguson is ...

and Phil Gordon.Quotes about Roy Cooke
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Poker consulting

From 1999 to 2005, Cooke was the cardroom manager of the world's first real money Internet poker room,

Planet Poker Planet Poker was an online poker platform and the first to offer real-money games. It operated from 1998 to 2017. History The pioneer Planet Poker was founded by Randy Blumer, who obtained the software license from ASF Software (later known as ...

founded in 1998 by Randy Blumer of Victoria, British Columbia. Planet Poker turned to Cooke and fellow poker personality Mike Caro (known as The Mad Genius of Poker) to give the poker site credibility. While at Planet Poker, Cooke designed most of the protocols which are the foundation of the industry standard for protection against collusion. Cooke has been a private consultant to a number of Internet poker sites and a featured speaker on marketing and anti-collusion protocols for poker sites at industry trade shows sponsored by River City Group, including the Global International Gaming Expo in Montreal (2005–2006).

References

External links

''Card Player'' magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Roy American poker players American gambling writers American male non-fiction writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)