The Math of Poker (Texas Hold 'em)

[donnyjr]

I am a novice player trying to get better at my online game and figure I need to understand the math of Poker better. What are some resources, articles, books, really anything that will help me learn the math of the game?

[Savy]

What are you capable of?

Not a question to put you down but resources are different if you have a PhD in maths or failed it at high school.

[donnyjr]

No Math PHD but i'm a competent student. So far my Math career in college is all A's through Trig.

[Savy]

No Math PHD but i'm a competent student. So far my Math career in college is all A's through Trig.

The ultimate book to get your teeth sank into is The mathematics of poker but it is very theoretical and not particularly well written in comparison to if it was wrote now. Still a very interesting book. That requires some basic calc. The Theory of poker is also a very good (but outdated) view of poker on the whole.

Apart from that the best poker books of the day tend to be the best math poker books of the day in that they are that well written they include both because poker math and theory are so interwoven at this point that they kind of have to be. Janda has a couple of great books that are worth checking out.

At this point though I should probably ask what your poker level is because all of those books probably start a little too deep if you're new to taking poker seriously.

[donnyjr]

I've played on and off for years but always with other beginners at a table, not online. So, I still think that I would be considered a beginner as far as taking the game seriously. I know how to play and basic strategies.

[Savy]

https://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerf...st-198113.html

[donnyjr]

I was just looking at that. thanks.

[BananaStand]

I'd recommend Ed Miller's book, Poker's 1%. Most of his stuff is geared toward live games, but that particular book looks deeply at the math of winning poker.

Just a quick example, if your opponent bets half pot, he's automatically making money, and you're automatically losing money if you fold more than 1/3 of the time. So you need to continue with at least 2/3 of your hands, in order to prevent him from making money by simply auto-betting.

So even though you only have two cards at any given time, you need to know what your entire range is in that situation, and then you need to determine if your current holding belongs in the 2/3 of hands that continue, or 1/3 of hands that fold.

From there, you can evaluate every hand in the range and see what the score is. If you find you'd fold more than 1/3 of your range to that half pot bet, then your range isn't good. It means you made an error on the previous street.