Andy Beal article

[Kevmath]

http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=788

Kevin...

[whiskeytown]

interesting -

I think the general consensus is that he's just a rich nut - but if he's the mathematician that they say he is, he could be VERY dangerous, esp. heads up -

He could devise a perfect play strategy like Blackjack - play every hand according to pre-devised conditions and mathmatically beat his opponents - not sure how easy that really is - since everything recalculates with each new exposed card on the board, but it'd be interesting.

RB

[Equal]

thx for the link.

[AJo Go All In]

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I think the general consensus is that he's just a rich nut

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no

[ QUOTE ]
He could devise a perfect play strategy like Blackjack - play every hand according to pre-devised conditions and mathmatically beat his opponents - not sure how easy that really is - since everything recalculates with each new exposed card on the board, but it'd be interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

no

[PokerBabe(aka)]

By NO means is Andy just "a rich nut". The guy can play from what I've heard. The bottom line is that he has more money than all the pros put together, and thus, he can play with NO fear of losing. Do you really think the "pros" can lose 40million and feel all comfy about it? Uhmmm, NO.

Bankroll is a HUGE factor when playing for the stakes these guys are talking about. Over time, I think he's got a shot.

/images/graemlins/heart.gif

[whiskeytown]

I disagree on the strategy play....maybe not every conceivable situation, but there is no doubt that a computer program could be developed that played perfect blackjack, and with a finite number of options and choices, heads up limit holdem would fall under the same category.

RB

[slickpoppa]

[ QUOTE ]
I disagree on the strategy play....maybe not every conceivable situation, but there is no doubt that a computer program could be developed that played perfect blackjack, and with a finite number of options and choices, heads up limit holdem would fall under the same category.

RB

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You can't compare hold'em to BJ because your opponent in hold'em is unpredictable and the correct strategy depends on what your opponent does.

[M.B.E.]

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You can't compare hold'em to BJ because your opponent in hold'em is unpredictable and the correct strategy depends on what your opponent does.

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Whiskeytown is essentially correct: for heads-up limit holdem there does exist a "basic strategy" that cannot be beaten. In other words, the strategy has nonnegative EV regardless of what strategy the opponent uses. To be clear, this basic strategy does not even attempt to exploit mistakes the opponent might be making.

Present-day computers are not powerful enough to calculate this basic strategy. However, the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group developed a strategy which seems pretty close.

In my view it is unlikely that Andy Beal or any human could memorize the heads-up limit holdem "basic strategy" or any reasonable approximation.

Read the paper by Billings et al. that won the award, Approximating Game-Theoretic Optimal Strategies for Full-Scale Poker (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/Papers/IJCAI03.html).

Also have a look at the recent thread Solving Poker (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Board=genpok&Number=1220051&fpart=all ) on the Theory forum.

[PokerPaul]

40 million....at 100k/200k thats 200BB....

For the pros, i can totally understand them wanting to reduce to lessor blinds and levels...even if they split it 15 ways, thats just under 3 mill per player.

The article says most of those pros are multimillionaires..i have my doubts that more than 6 of them are but whatever.

this game could break some of them, and if they are willing to bet on a single humongous HU game, i do consider them degenerate gamblers.

For example, would any of you here be willing to sell your house and life svaings and put it into a HU poker game, where the limits were such that you only had 200BB, even if you were playing against someone you were better than?

I wouldnt, 200BB, especially HU can go pretty quick just by 1 bad streak of cards. Not enough for long run to kick in properly for superior skill to come through.