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November 4, 2006
Poker & Math
As Terrence Chan recently pointed out, The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman is currently for sale. That is the one poker book I've been looking forward to in the past three years, excepting my own of course.
I'm not really a math guy by poker industry standards, but I'm very interested to see what I'm missing out on. Bill told me a little about it when I met him in Vegas this summer and I've talked to a couple people who've read advanced copies. It sounds intriguing. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on it here once I've finished.
I'm always a little skeptical of overly-analytical approaches to poker, as I think applying mathematics correctly often involves making too many assumptions to do with any accuracy. There are often just too many variables to control for. But at the same time I think a strong theoretical base is extraordinarily helpful, so I'm going in with an open mind here. I'm positive I'll learn something and consider it highly likely that I will learn a lot. And if not, I know where to find the authors. I could write them an email demanding my money back.
Posted by themaroon at November 4, 2006 4:00 AM
Comments
[I started following Matt’s Play Poker, Live Large plan in September, 2005. With Matt’s permission, I’m posting updates on my progress.]
Play Poker, Live Large: First experiences at FTP
I’m doing a-ok in the $11 SNGs at Full Tilt so I am going to start multi-tabling. Unfortunately I don’t have a 1600x1200 monitor (or graphics card) and FTP’s tables are not resizable so I am going to have to tile the tables.
If anyone knows of software that makes multi-tabling easier on FTP, do let me know.
Also, does anyone know of any good heads up displays or databases for SNGs? What is the SNG equivalent of PokerTracker / Poker Ace HU?
SNGs are fun because they generate all sorts of interesting little problems: Stacks are between 1K and 5K with 5 players left. Blinds are 100/200. Short stack goes all in and it is folded to you in the BB. You have 2K chips. What do you call with?
The Chen book should be interesting but the hard part is going to be to figure out how to bridge the gulf between the toy games that they solve and real poker. If they map poker hands onto the interval [0 1], for example, you’ll have to be able to figure what AK on a 783 board corresponds to.
Posted by: Paul at November 4, 2006 9:22 PM