Textbook for stats and probability

I'm taking an intro stats course but the textbook is garbage. I'm looking for something that would be appropriate for an intro class but also gets into some more advanced topics. Obviously easy to read and learn from is important. Anyone know of a good book?

[callydrias]

No, but I hope someone replies with some good suggestions. I'm looking for a good textbook on combinatorics and probabilities that goes beyond simple combination/permutation stuff.

Try posting in the Probability forum as well.

[Tom Bayes]

I teach stats. Tell me the name of the book you are using (so I know what you think is crap) and I'll try to give you a better suggestion. If you don't already know this, it's easy to get used math/stat books on E-Bay really cheap if you are willing to buy a book that has been superseded by a new edition-the changes from edition to edition are rarely substantial and are usually only made so the publishers can make more money.

Also, here are a couple of web sources that you'd probably like, combing stats/prob with poker:

http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/friedman/prob.pdf

http://www.math.sfu.ca/~alspach/computations.html

[Tom Bayes]

A lot of my answer would depend on what level of math I can assume for you.

If we are assuming that you have a background in calculus, then some decent prob/stat books geared for an undergrad mathematical statistics course include:
"Statistical Inference" by Robert Hogg & Elliot Tanis
"Advanced Statistics from an Elementary Point of View" by Michael Panik (this is a brand new book)
"Introduction to Probability and Statistics" by Lee Bain/Max Engelhardt
"Probability and Statistics: The Science of Uncertainty" by Michael Evans/Jeffrey Rosenthal (more "modern" in it's approach to mathematical stats than the other books mentioned)

If you don't have the calc background or are just looking for a book assuming no more than high school algebra for background for a typical "STAT 101" course, then I like:
"Intro Stats" by Richard DeVeaux and Paul Velleman
"Introduction to the Practice of Statistics" by David Moore & George McCabe
"Statistics: The Exploration and Analysis of Data" by Jay Devore and Roxy Peck
"Workshop Statistics" by Allen Rossman & Beth Chance

I hope you aren't using the book by Mario Triola. It's a turd.

That being said, the general trend in statistics education over the last 20 years has been to de-emphasize the amount of probability covered in the "STAT 101" course. From a poker player's perspective, this is the primary stuff you are interested in. To be honest, I think the average 30 or 40 year old stats book would be better for self-study for a poker player than the newer books. Maybe your dad still has a 30 year old stats/prob book in the garage
/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

The book my class is using is "An Introduction to Mathematical Statistics and it's Applications" by Richard Larsen and Morris Marx. I find the explinations hard to read, the examples hard to follow, theorems and definitions hard to understand. The example problems are especially hard to follow. I usually learn by example so this is important to me. If I don't understand a concept, I'll go through the examples and try to figure out what the theorems are saying. A book with good examples is important.

I have a decent background in calculus. I've taken up to multi-variable calc and I'm currently taking differential equations. Thanks a lot, I appreciate the suggestions.

[Tom Bayes]

I always thought Larsen/Marx was OK. I'm not sure if you'll like Hogg/Tanis or my other suggestions any better.

You didn't ask, but you (or someone) might be interested in learning a little bit of game theory as well. You can check out the website of Thomas "Father of Jesus" Ferguson, a mathematician at UCLA.

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tom/

At the top of the page are some technical papers on some mathematical aspects of poker that the Fergusons wrote. It's tough reading and certainly not intended for the general public and I don't think reading it will help your stats grade or your poker game /images/graemlins/grin.gif

In the middle of the page is a link to an online basic stats textbook. Not sure if it's any good, but it's free.

At the bottom he's posted some notes from his basic game theory class. Again, don't know if anyone is interested, but the price is right if you want to download some game theory info. /images/graemlins/grin.gif