Name: The Mathematics of Poker
ISBN: 9781886070257

The Mathematics of Poker

For decades, the highest level of poker have been dominated by players who have learned the game by playing it, road gamblers' who have cultivated intuition for the game and are adept at reading other players' hands from betting patterns and physical tells. Over the last five to ten years, a whole new breed has risen to prominence within the poker community. Applying the tools of computer science and mathematics to poker and sharing the information across the Internet, these players have challenged many of the assumptions that underlay traditional approaches to the game.'

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fierycatnetAug 2026

The only "GTO" that I found beneficial was 'optimal play' from Mathematics of Poker. You don't have to read formulas and math because their summary section gives a pretty good overview of the concept that is easier to understand. They also have section on 'exploitative play' which is what you'd usually run into at the table.

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mettamageAug 2026

Where can I learn what you learn to make +EV plays? I did some poker back in the day, it was fun :)

One of my favorite books was The Mathematics of Poker

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zahlmanJan 2025

I studied the game in some depth around a decade ago (maybe longer than that). Both practical strategy as counseled by experts, and also on a more formal, theoretical level. I have one physical book on the topic - The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman - and can highly recommend it.

I wasn't really aiming to "correct" you but just give additional insight. It seems like you clearly recognize the impact that luck has in poker, and your points about mental discipline are well taken. (I'm bad at that, and I figure that's mainly why I never saw major success despite my understanding of the math.) It seemed like your intent was to offer fairly basic advice, and I don't see anything really wrong with it (except that in typical situations, a small pair like 44 is at least as playable as the weaker "hands with a value of 10 or higher, for both of your cards" like QTo; and a lot of the time a small suited Ace also has comparable value).

Of course, it would be better to distinguish between strategy in cash games and tournament play, since you mention trying your hand at both; but that's really not as important as the fundamental ideas you present (trying to be aggressive preflop to get heads-up; making sensible bet sizes; understanding how "short" a 15BB stack is with no-limit betting; making continuation bets as cheap bluffs in appropriate spots; not getting fancy against simple-minded opponents).

> low-capped buy-in games in LA at hollywood park haha ($100 max for $1-3)

Oof. Yeah, a shove-or-fold strategy is probably very viable there if people are opening speculative hands to like $12 or more. (And I imagine they will do that, because even if they have a basic understanding and aren't just there to gamble, they aren't going to understand how deep you have to be to make things like 98s profitable.) Of course, if you aren't comfortable repeatedly putting $100 at a time on a 60-40 proposition (plus getting a chunk raked away when you win) then you can't really play live poker for cash. (And I mean 60-40 at the time of betting, based on an expected range - not when the cards are turned up. Your opponents are allowed to have AA sometimes.)

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bionsystemJul 2022

In my opinion the most valuable book that is still relevant from pre-19 is Mathematics of Poker. But proper poker study should come from playing around with solvers, ideally with somebody who can guide you through not making the most common mistakes.

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LewisVerstappenMay 2022

This is not true in the slightest.

Poker is far, far more mathematical than chess. The idea that poker pros are only going off "reads" is completely ludicrous.

They have a set game-theory-optimal style of playing, and then use an opponents flaws/"tells" to deviate from the GTO style to exploit those tells.

An example of a flaw could be if the opponent is playing shitty hole cards.

If the opponent has played in every pot over the last 30 minutes (something you'll frequently see), then he's playing way too many hands preflop.

This is exploitable.

Just a super basic example, but you'd be surprised at how profitable this is. Beginners play way too many hands. If you want to make money, just fold every hand and let the beginner collect the blinds until you get AAs, KKs, QQs, etc. and then you should bet big. The beginner won't notice and he'll pay you off anyway. You'll be massively +EV.

A more advanced player will notice what you're doing and he'll immediately fold when you bet big. Therefore, you'll have to start incorporating "bluffs" into your strategy so his tactic of folding whenever you bet big becomes unprofitable.

Poker is about figuring out all of these things and then using these tools to make the most money.

Bill Chen wrote a great book called "The Mathematics of Poker" that goes through all the math involved.

It's all probability theory and game theory.

He gave a talk at MIT that goes over some of the basic concepts -> https://youtu.be/BuxCNZ0RVKA

The obvious issue with teaching your kids poker is that it'll be very difficult for your kid to find anyone else to play with. He/she can't go play poker in a casino obviously

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jstx1Jan 2022

The Mathematics of Poker, by Chen & Ankenman - this one doesn't age because it's really fundamental if you want to understand things from the ground up. But it won't seem that practical at first.

Applications of No-Limit Hold 'em, by Matthew Janda - this one goes into specifics about how to think on each street, how to build a good strategy etc. Some of the details will be different from the latest theory because the book was released in 2013 but it's still a very solid read if you want to level up.

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