This book offers an interesting insight into the world of poker for both players and non-players. It is a collection of entertaining true stories and educational explanations from a winning poker player who made a very good living from the game for fifteen years. It is a very comprehensive and practical primer for the serious and semi-serious poker player with lots of stories form the author’s personal experiences to illustrate the points. This is truly a book of knowledge for the beginning player with considerable application for the advanced player.

H.C. Bayler Jr. is retired and lives with his wife of 47 years in rural Texas. He enjoyed his years of poker and is writing this book to pass along some of his enjoyment and to encourage younger players to become more serious about their game and thus increase their enjoyment. We enjoy what we do well and do well what we enjoy. Winning is fun.

One of the more interesting stories that I remember took place in a horse barn on a ranch in West Texas. The time was around midnight. The game was no-limit poker with a $300 minimum buy-in. Several players had lost their stacks and had made multiple buy-ins. There was almost $5,000 on the table. The hand was seven-card stud with nothing wild. One of the players had caught four Kings early on and had been raising steadily. The game was loose and the beer had been flowing freely. The pot had gotten very large. During the final round of betting, the next dealer, Clint, on the other side of the table, who was out of this pot, had already started picking up the discards, but nobody noticed except me, because the action was getting very exciting. The "four-Kings" player went all-in with his entire stack and had two callers which established a humungus pot! The all-in better reached down to turn over his hand and --------------------------------- There weren’t any cards there. His hand had accidentally been picked up and mixed into the discards!!!