Pot odds etc

[totalise]

I defo agree with you, I think its a good book, it has some stuff on live play and tells which I would find useful if I ever escape from my house and play live. I gave it to my dad after I read it and he has improved quite a bit

[kinboshi]

Anyone read this one?

Texas Hold'em Odds And Probabilities: Limit, No-limit, And Tournament Strategies - Matthew Hilger ?

Just wondering if there's useful stuff in there, or it's just a rehash of the usual charts, etc. 

Might just buy it and find out.

[kinboshi]

 

[Sheriff Fatman]

Not read it but it got 4stars out of 5 in this month's Poker Player mag.

[kinboshi]

Just opened mine, and saw it - which prompted me to check the thread.

I'll get it and feed back to everyone what I think of it.

[lazaroonie]

do you really need a book to tell you what your pot  odds are ? As far as I was aware there were still 52 cards in a deck, and you have two of them, if you cant express your "outs" as a percentage based on these two facts then you have no business playing the game. its just basic arithmetic.

actually , you have plenty business playing the game, just as long as you are sitting at my table....

[I, Zimbra]

Frankly I never realised that there were quite so many books available on the subject of poker....

Is it likely, does one suppose, that many of them are saying exactly the same thing as each other and are therefore a complete waste of money?

[Jonboy]

do you really need a book to tell you what your pot  odds are ? As far as I was aware there were still 52 cards in a deck, and you have two of them, if you cant express your "outs" as a percentage based on these two facts then you have no business playing the game. its just basic arithmetic.

actually , you have plenty business playing the game, just as long as you are sitting at my table....

As totalise has eluded to ther is a lot more to the mathematics of poker than just calculating pot odds. Some of it is intuitive, some of it far from it. Personally I think 'bet sizing' is one of the key areas where people make mistakes in NLHE, especially at the lower stakes. Some of the books mentioned in this thread provide excellent examples of this and support it with the maths ... these examples are not a 'how to' guide but will get you thinking about other areas of your game and some of the standard plays in your arsenal.

However ... the maths is never black and white and will always be based on the fact you have read the situation/hand correctly and a multitude of other factors.

For example, what pot odds do you need to call an all-in with any two cards?

[Sheriff Fatman]

Frankly I never realised that there were quite so many books available on the subject of poker....

Is it likely, does one suppose, that many of them are saying exactly the same thing as each other and are therefore a complete waste of money?

You'd be amazed at how much variety there is - I've got about 100 books on poker & gambling theory and there's remarkably little common ground.

Of course, this does mean that you have to be careful as there's a lot of bad advice out there.  If you want an idea of how bad, take a look at the 'search inside' and reviews of this book which is a clear favourite for the worst poker book ever written.

Sheriff

[SuffolkPunch]

All novices should buy The Sun's How to Play Poker, only £4.99 from all good bookshops!

 

[Sheriff Fatman]

yeah they just sent me an email to say they have ordered it direct from the publisher and will keep me informed, be handy if it came in time to read it before the APAT event @ Newcastle but i cant see it.

OK, the race is on.  Out of intrigue I've ordered direct from the US at a cost of $42.95 including shipping (payable by Neteller, which is handy as no conversion costs).  I'm intrigued to see what difference there is in delivery times (yes I'm that sad!)

Sheriff

My copy of The Mathematics of Poker has just arrived!  A quick flick through reveals plenty of formulae and algebraic notation (is it sad that I cheered when I saw this?) so this is not one for the faint-hearted as far as maths is concerned!  Will put a review up in due course.

Sheriff

[totalise]

the explanation of Bayes Theorum in it is exceptional, I took one look at the 0,1 games and other such stuff and my head exploded.

[tikay]

All novices should buy The Sun's How to Play Poker, only £4.99 from all good bookshops!

 

Any idea who wrote that one Simon?.......

[Muahahahaha]

do you really need a book to tell you what your pot  odds are ? As far as I was aware there were still 52 cards in a deck, and you have two of them, if you cant express your "outs" as a percentage based on these two facts then you have no business playing the game. its just basic arithmetic.

Knowing he change from £20 for a round of drinks is basic arithmetic.

Pot odds is actually a darn sight harder than that.  Just because Jesus is a mathmatical genius, doesnt mean that every top player naturaly is.   Some of us need help trying to understand the complexities of this game.  That doesn't make us bad people, and although we are not worthy of playing at your table now, maybe in a few months we'll improve enough so that you can happily take our money.

 

[Sheriff Fatman]

From what I've read so far, The Mathematics Of Poker is NOT the book you want to read to get a basic understanding of pot-odds, etc.  The discussion on this is very brief and some of the earlier books I listed in this thread are far better from giving you a practical understanding of this.

That is not to say that this is a bad book.  I've absolutely fascinated by it so far, but I suspect the vast majority of 'casual readers' would find it very hard-going to get through it.  As totalise stated earlier in the thread, the discussion of Bayes Theorem is about as good as I've ever seen but the book assumes a level of maths knowledge that's beyond GCSE level (e.g. if you're unfamiliar with the sigma notation for summation, which I think is probably something you don't see until A-level maths, then you're likely to be disappointed as the very first formula stated in the book uses this).

I'm finding it a fascinating read so far, but I studied maths through to university (although I'm now discovering how much of it I've forgotten) so I'm just the sort of sad geek that this book has been aimed at!  Please bear this in mind if you're thinking of buying it.

Sheriff