Pot odds etc

[Rozza1]

I'd really like to improve the mathmatics side of my game and wondered if anyone had any suggestions for which poker books were particular good for this area of the game.

[thetank]

Anything from 2+2 Publishing tends to be math heavy.

Sklansky's Theory of Poker is a good place to start that side of things.

[Rozza1]

oh ive got that book knocking about somewhere i will dig it out

Cheers 

[thetank]

Don't try and do it all in one sitting.

It's a chapter a day kinda read if you want to fully digest the ideas and concepts held within.

[tantrum]

there are few specific book only concentrating on counting outs and odds, but i don't remember the title.  I know that they exisits as i saw them in the book shop.  One of the excellent additions is 'Holde'em on the Come: Limit hold'em strategy for drawing hands' by slotboom and dew mason.  Although it is for LHE, it gives an excellent practice excercises to learn all about counting the outs/pot odds and so forth. 

[happybhoy]

I bought Texas Hold 'Em Odds by Catalin Barboianu and it goes beyond 'maths heavy' and out the other side of 'requires a masters to understand', it contains very little text beyond pages upon pages of equations. On the plus side it's nice and big and handy for rolling joints on, so not a total waste.

[Sheriff Fatman]

I'd really like to improve the mathmatics side of my game and wondered if anyone had any suggestions for which poker books were particular good for this area of the game.

How 'maths heavy' do you want it to be?  There are various books I can think of but they have varying levels of complexity.

Sheriff

[thetank]

What's the most complicated one?

I want something to put on my bookshelf so people think I'm clever.

[Newmanseye]

I want something to put on my bookshelf so people think I'm clever.

In that case buy a brief history of time and stick your name on the side.

[thetank]

Serious question, I'm curious

[doubleup]

The problem with poker maths is that it is secondary to other skills like hand reading.  Most books have a bit of basic maths, but a lot of the established classics are biased towards limit poker.  Implied odds are much more important in nl and pl than in limit.  NL tournaments have even more complexity.  If you play STTs there are some quite important concepts you should make yourself familiar with.

It's unlikely that you'll make big mistakes (except maybe in STTs)  due to ignorance of  complex poker maths if your other poker skills are up to the mark and you'll rarely have time to work out anything exactly during a hand anyway.  

IMO the twoplustwo forums are the best place to look first.  

  

[totalise]

getting the best of it by sklanksy deals with some good mathematical stuff, bayes theorum and the like

Wait til the end of the month Tank, Bill Chen and Jerrod have their mathematics of poker book out. That will be fantastic

[thetank]

Cheers

[chimney sweep]

there's a new book called The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman that's supposed to the definitive work on the subject. Chen won two bracelets at this year's WSOP so it looks like he at least knows what he's talking about...

[Sheriff Fatman]

The new book is the one I was thinking of as I was reading about it 'elsewhere' earlier on. Looks to be a definitive work on the subject but very intensive reading.

Mike Petriv's book, Holdem Odd's is another alternative and starts at a very basic level.  I does however look like its been printed on a 1970's dot matrix printer!

King Yao's 'Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker' is good, but focused on limit hold'em (which to be honest is a more 'mathematical' game).

Mason Malmuth's 'Gambling Theory and Other Topics' is a fascinating read but covers topics such as risk of ruin and bankroll theory, rather than pot odds, etc.