book suggestions for Econ phd student

[jdl22]

I'm an Economics Ph.D. student doing research (when my damn first year classes end) in Game Theory and behavioral economics. In case you don't know, GT is the study of strategic interaction by perfectly rational agents, behavioral eoonomics studies game theoretic models for human behavior, tests them in lab experiments, and comes up with a better model since game theory models normally are terrible models of human behavior (newsflash: most humans are not rational). I primarily studied math as an undergrad and because of my interest in games I starting studying Economics. I became interested in poker after watching the WSOP on ESPN and seeing the game theory in action (for example Moneymaker's bluff HU). I started playing low limit Hold'em in early December and have been studying it since late December.

My request is for book reccomendations. These could be in two categories: those I should read to improve my play (which right now is horrific, although somehow I'm up), and those that perhaps are a little thin on explaining how to apply the theory, but go deep into it. While the second group may not be helpful I will none the less get a lot out of them in entertainment and maybe even a research topic or
two.

I have read TOP, HE, WLLHE, Hellmuth's book, and a Ken Warren book. I really enjoyed TOP obviously, although I'm still working on actually applying the theory (right now I'm calculating when I should call in various draw situations).

Thank you.

[Taxman]

Malmuth's Poker Essays have a lot of interesting material that range from practical to theoretical to rambling, but all are enjoyable and helpful. Bob Ciaffone's Improve Your Poker is fantastic. Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players is amazing and I think you would find it interesting from a theoretical and a practical standpoint. I've heard several posters here refer to it as the best 2+2 book. Also Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players is of course the deffinitive work on Hold 'em and Inside the Poker Mind by Feeney is interesting. Ciaffone's Pot limit and No Limit book is also good to get an idea of how big bet poker is a different game. There are of course even more books than this that are good, but I think I've rambled enough. As you can see I have bought way more books than I need considering I am not even close to an expert yet, but oh well, poker IS interesting.

Make sure you take note of the discrepencies between Warrren's, Hellmuth's and Sklansky's books (and others), keeping in mind that in most cases Sklansky tends to be more "right." Try to convince yourself in each case why certain advice is right, wrong, questionable, or useful but just different. Every book you read (including 2+@ books of course) should be read with this type critical eye as I've found constantly explaining to myself why certain things are good or no good has greatly improved my game (I've only really been playing for about 4 months myself and it took me 3 months to figure that out). I may be no expert, but I certainly am now a winner (well I'd like to think so, but this is only based on about 150 hours of play which isn't much, for obvious statistical reasons) whereas before I may have been a break even player at best. Hope my incoherent nonsense helps!

[Henke]

If you want to improve your game, you should buy pokertracker! You can then easily and conveniently analyze your game. It's interesting to see how your emotions influence the decisionmaking at the table.

If you don't have it, HPfAP is a MUST! GOT is a good one too. Theory of gambling and statistical logic by R. Epstein has a bit of info on poker too, mostly some reproductions of early game-theoretic solutions to simplified pokergames.

[Zele]

You've probably seen a lot of the ideas, but Epstein's Gambling Theory and Statistical Logic is pretty much the bible of the theory of gambling games, with poker recieving an individual treatment. I'm sure you'll be skipping the game theory section. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[jdl22]

Thanks for the advice. I picked up HEPAP yesterday and so far I'm happy, although most of it seems too advanced for the low limit games when most players don't pay attention(obviously with the exception of the loose tables section).

I will pick up some of your other suggestions after I have read HEPAP and reread it and TOP.