This guide, written by casino math professor Robert Hannum, contains a brief, non-technical discussion of the basic mathematics governing casino games and shows how casinos make money from these games. The article addresses a variety of topics, including house advantage, confusion about win rates, game volatility, player value and comp policies. Poker is a game of probabilities, and we use Poker Maths to help make the right decision. Don't worry you won’t need a calculator or be good at mathematics. This is a fantastic poker book, it's a great math book, and it's a fabulous game theory book. I wish this were a textbook for a graduate course because that's the way it reads. I'm going to be going over the work in this volume again and again in order to understand the concepts. By far the best examination of poker I've encountered.

Let me tell you about my new favorite thing - gambling in the classroom my poker chip review game. It was SO engaging that my students were begging to play it - even students that don't typically get involved were participating! It will work with any subject area and is sure to make you wonder for at least half a second that how much fun it would be to be a BlackJack dealer.
Welcome to Casino Dyal. These poker chips were collecting dust in a spare bedroom and were absolutely perfect for this activity. Inspiration for this game came from Math = Love, but Sarah used Bingo chips. I think using poker chips was one of the big keys to success here because it was very easy for me to 'pay' them, they could easily stack them up, and they could see their money grow as they exchanged for different color chips. I only used three colors and wrote on the board: White = 1, Red = 10; Black =100

Each team started with 11 white chips. They were required to keep at least one chip off the board, so they could always get back in the game (and I would never take their last chip). I would use my projector to display a multiple choice question and give groups time to figure out their answers. Not only did they have to figure out their answer, but they also had to assess how confident they were in their answer. This discussion was my favorite to eavesdrop on and where I heard a lot of people who usually sit and do nothing don't participate start to get involved.
I would give a warning and then five second countdown before I would call times and remind students, 'Do NOT touch your chips!' Then I could have group's share their reasoning or why they chose various answers. Usually with multiple choice questions, I hear a lot of 'I guessed,' but not when there was wagering involving. If group's went 'all in,' I would have them share how they knew their answer was correct, I would hear some great explanations then too about using process of elimination to get rid of obviously wrong answer choices. If groups only placed a few chips on the board, we could discuss why their confidence wasn't high in their answer.
Then I would remind students not to touch their chips and I would change the slide to the next question. As they worked the problem out, I would walk around and 'pay' them or take their chips. I just walked around with chips in my hand and matched their stacks, just like at the BlackJack tables. I would also cash in stacks of 10 white ones for a red or stacks of 10 red ones for the coveted 'black chip.'
I expanded this game beyond just multiple choice by having them stack chips on their answer. For one question, they had to fill out this two-way frequency table. In other questions, they would draw a graph or even write an equation. By stacking the chips on top of their answer, there was no way for them to cheat and change it. (I had plenty of eyes watching to make sure no one touched their chips after I gave the correct answer).
Sometimes we played for homework passes, extra credit points, or a Dum-Dum. The students would come in begging to play 'That Super Fun Poker Chip Game' - anytime you can get kids begging to do math - it's a 'Winner Winner Chicken Dinner' in my book!

Mathematics Of Poker Review 2

'There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not someday be applied to the phenomena of the real world.'

-– Nicolai Lobachevsky

'If you think the math isn't important, you don't know the right math.'

--Chris Ferguson.

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A major factor attributing to poker's worldwide appeal is the common belief that it is more a game about people than it is about anything else. With most decisions being situational in nature, the answer to many a procedural question is often 'it depends.' Experts encourage one to play the man as opposed to his cards. But what if such conventional assumptions proved to be only partially true? This eventuality is addressed in the recently released The Mathematics of Poker. Authors Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman definitely state that it is the numerical reasoning behind our decisions that is more important than the searching for tells or the twitching of our guts.

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Higher level mathematics is not a field in which the average poker pundit is generally well-versed, but this could never be said about Bill Chen. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, was a quantitative analyst by trade, and also has experience with software design. As for poker, his credentials are impeccable. Chen's results from this year's World Series of Poker were nothing short of astonishing. He left the annual event with a bracelet from the $2,500 Short Handed No Limit tournament and another from the $3,000 Limit Hold' em contest. Overall, he cashed six times. Chen has been collaborating with Jerrod Ankenman since 2002, and their labor has been quite productive. As for Ankenman, he is a professional player who took second this year in a separate $3,000 Limit Hold' em event at the 2006 World Series of Poker.

Their book is not unwieldy but its pages are bloated with information. The work is broken down into five major parts; each of these support the central theme of maximizing average profit. By the second page of the Introduction—in which the common misconceptions of play are examined—readers will discern that there is no fluff in these 350+ pages. Parts II and III embody its intellectual core as they outline the mechanics of both exploitative and optimal play. Exploitative play is defined as maximizing expectation in lieu of your opponent's strategy; whereas, optimal play makes use of fundamentally sound strategies which are independent from your opponent's actions. While most players strive to be exploitative with their play, the better ones compete at a 'near-optimal' level which is an evolutionary advancement over taking advantage of mistakes. Other than Roshambo [rock, paper, scissors] and the The Jam or Fold Game for no limit, many examples will not be familiar to the average person. A lack of familiarity is not a problem, however, because studying games like Clairvoyance, AKQ, Cops and Robbers, and Auction strengthen the mind and provide valuable perspective. Of course, novices should be forewarned to put off this purchase until they become fully grounded in the elementary facets of poker. This text does not address the majority of the decisions one makes at the table. In this way, Chen and Ankenman are more Plutarch than Sklansky by treating the mind as 'a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled.'

Prospective readers may wonder about the difficulty of the math presented, and whether the possession of serious quantitative skills is a prerequisite for extracting value from its pages. Not surprisingly, the answer is, 'It depends.' Assuredly, most members of the book consuming poker public meet the author's criteria in this area, which is the completion of eighth grade algebra. Although, what Chen and Ankenman may forget is that many of us no longer remember most of what we learned during those dark days of middle school. Understanding the proofs so prevalent in the narrative hinges on the retention of information that might have been long deleted from our memory banks. Furthermore, a rudimentary background in statistics is also necessary for apprehending the meaning behind the equations. Those with no knowledge of statistics and algebra will be slightly stunned by the extent of the quantitative detail on display. The math impaired might become slightly demoralized, but the good news is that some amazing ideas are presented above and below the ubiquitous expressions. The sections concerning bankrolls, backing agreements, and tournaments will be of value to everyone as will the chapters devoted to the Risk of Ruin model, the use of math to improve play, and a no limit hold 'em case study used as the basis for justifying the precepts of game theory. With the exception of casino executives, who won't cherish the conclusion, 'risk of ruin is 100% for games with negative expectation,' this function will be universally appreciated. Luckily for the industry, millions of slots players are not troubled by the laws of probability.

Yes, this book is quite challenging, but self-improvement is rarely accomplished via easy endeavor. Beyond its application to the game, The Mathematics of Poker's educational scope provides an independent rationale for its worth. Concepts in finance, economics, and psychology are explained and numerous theories are expanded upon for which poker players might otherwise never encounter. And even in regard to recognizable terms like Bayes' Theorem and the Kelly Criterion, no source I've seen does a better job of illuminating their meaning than this one.

Mathematics Of Poker Review 2020

It is important to recall that this text is not an end point. Mountain ranges worth of mathematical information remain in need of interpretation. The Mathematics of Poker is a thorough introduction, and there is little doubt that future works will build upon its foundation. Chen and Ankenman offer something here that is totally unique due to its avoidance of felt level tactics and its emphasis on strategy—which is its essential virtue.