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Old 11-01-2005, 03:19 AM
Matt R. Matt R. is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 351
Default Re: Is math all there is to poker?

Math is all there is to everything. Now whether the system is simple enough to be solvable is another story.... In the case for poker, you can incorporate the psychology of your opponent into probability theory using bayesian logic. This comes up with reasonable approximations for the 'EV' of a play. But... the mind is obviously too complex to precisely model in this way, so it's just an approximation and cannot be exact. It's still all math though, it's just based off of the assumptions you put on your opponent.

I think Sklansky and Negreanu are saying the exact same thing -- they are just looking at it from different angles. Sklansky is saying this 'unsolvable' part is still mathematical because of Bayesian logic. Negreanu is saying it's not mathematical because your reads of your opponents are never exact.
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