Much to his surprise, Bob McKinney was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha is cold, dreary, and there’s not really much to do there. Quickly realizing his mistake, he moved to Dallas, Texas 3 days later. By contrast, Dallas is warm, lively, and there’s lots of stuff to do there.
He was adopted by his aunt and uncle, but he never made a distinction related to his actual parenthood, and neither did they. He has lived in Dallas, Texas (or somewhere in the surrounding area) for over 44 years.
He was educated in the public school systems in Dallas, but he later went to college at the University of North Texas in Denton. In spite of multiple protests from faculty and administrators, he earned a series of degrees in Literature. The minor bouts of outrage from the staff at the University didn’t bother Bob much at all, in fact.
(That last paragraph was obviously written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as it’s obvious from his writing style that Bob McKinney is so lovable that all of his professors, especially the women professors, adored him.)
As a young man in his twenties, Bob found the love of his life—Texas holdem. By the time he was 30, he was playing in most of the underground cardrooms of Dallas, as well as playing on various Internet poker sites like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Party Poker. In more recent years, he’s spent his time playing poker in various home games and in the cardrooms at Choctaw Casino and Winstar Casino.
At the time of this writing, Bob McKinney has participated in over 460 different live Texas holdem tournaments. He has no intention of slowing down. And even though he’s arguably middle-aged, he grows more energetic, cheerful, and handsome every day. He’s also quite lovable. Since he wrote this about page himself, you can rest assured that all of the information (other than his real name) is accurate, especially the part about how he continues to grow even more handsome and lovable each year.
McKinney is married to a sociology professor, and together they have three children. One is an eighteen year old boy who already knows everything, and the other two are twin girls who are only slightly less sure of themselves.
This Site’s Goals
The goals of this site are to provide honest, accurate, and useful information about playing Texas holdem poker. The content planned for this site includes reviews of places both online and off where you can play Texas holdem, but also how to play the game in a mathematically optimal manner. McKinney’s intention for the site is for it to become the #1 resource of its kind on the Internet.
You’ll find plenty of sites about Texas holdem on the Internet, but this site plans to be different in several ways. For one thing, you’ll find more content and better-quality content here than anywhere else. The #1 goal for all of the pages on this site is to be useful to the Texas holdem player. This means a heavy focus on math. At the time of this writing, the site is new, but the publishers hope it will eventually become a recognized authority on the topic.
The site also has a goal to provide an outstanding reader experience. Usability should be taken seriously. You won’t find any spam or excessive advertising getting in the way of your reading experience here. In fact, the advertisers for this site are carefully screened by the owner of the site. Bob McKinney promises not to advertise any Internet site unless he feels like the site has integrity and safety as two of its main goals.
Poker is a great game and a noble pastime in multiple ways. You should avail yourself of the highest quality knowledge and data available so that you can improve your chances of winning. You should also remember that it’s possible to do everything right and still lose. That’s the nature of gambling, and even if you’re gambling with a positive expectation, you still have the possibility of losing because of standard deviation to consider.
More about Bob McKinney
McKinney might only have a degree in English Literature, but this does not mean he’s bad at math. On the contrary, his math score on the SAT was actually higher than his verbal score. While he’ll never get a job as an accountant or a mathematician, he understands the math behind poker on an almost intuitive level. His goal with his explanations of holdem strategy on this site is to explain the concepts in clear language that anyone else can understand.
Bob McKinney also has other hobbies besides poker. He’s an avid Dungeons and Dragons player, for one thing. Many people with his background and interests also enjoy Magic the Gathering, but that’s a bug he never caught. He does enjoy playing a deck building game called Dominion, though. He also laments the going-out-of-business of City of Heroes every day, because that was his favorite MMORPG.
In addition to that, he collects comic books, juggles, and has occasionally done some acting with the local community theater. He’s also a big fan of the movie The Big Lebowski.
McKinney is not much interested in other types of gambling, because he prefers to play a game where he can get an edge through properly applied strategy and application of math. He understands that you can also get an edge at blackjack, video poker, and sports betting via correct play, but none of those games are as interesting (to him) as poker is.
He also watches a good bit of television, although he despises televised poker. His favorite channel is TCM, or Turner Classic Movies, because before 1965, the people writing screenplays put a lot more effort into their craft.