Game theory book recommendations wanted

[Fluffington]

I'm interested in learning more about this topic and would appreciate some book suggestions. I'd prefer to start out with something not too advanced. Thanks.

[casinoman]

Theory of Poker?

[eyekast]

darn tootin' the one and only book on game theory

[Richard Berg]

Osborne isn't bad if you don't mind having lots of proofs omitted.

[npc]

Regarding game theory as it applies directly to poker, the two best are "Theory of Poker" by Sklansky and the out-of-print "Poker Strategy: Winning with Game Theory" by Nesmith Ankeny.

If you're just interested in the topic of Game Theory, my favorites for those who remember their high school Algebra II (matrices) is Melvin Dresher's "Mathematics of Games of Strategy". If this level of math scares you, you might want to try J.D. Williams' "Compleat Strategyst" [sic]. Of course, no library on game theory would be complete without a copy of von Neumann and Morganstern's "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior".

Note, the basic game theory literature is pretty short on things that are easy to directly adapt to poker play. One exception is a single chapter in von Neumann and Morganstern. Nonetheless, it's an interesting field of mathematics (IMHO), and understanding this stuff will make it easier to understand what's going on in Sklansky and Ankeny.

[jdl22]

For a non technical book read "Game Theory, A Nontechnical Introduction" by Morton Davis or "Thinking Strategically" by Dixit and Nalebuff.

For a technical book go with Fudenberg and Tirole.

The original GT book is "Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour" by John von Neumann and Oscar Morgenstern. This book is good essentially as a history book, but otherwise isn't particularly fantastic otherwise. If you haven't read any other books wait to read it. Once you have read several and then want to know something of a genesis go for it but otherwise it's not worth it.

[Eclypse]

A few are recommending "Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour" but unless you understand math with lots of greek symbols in it, forget it. VERY heavy mathematically.

For a good introduction try "The Compleat Strategyst" instead.

[BradleyT]

Abdul's website prolly has some good stuff in this area.

[mrbaseball]

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For a good introduction try "The Compleat Strategyst" instead

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Good choice. I took a game theory class in college (30 years ago!) and this was our textbook for that class. It will give a good basic understanding and covers the basics very well.

[fnord_too]

There is a very good 20-40 page intro on the web somewhere. I am in the middle of getting my house ready for sale, so I don't know where my hard copy is, which is the only place I'd have the URL. "The Complete Strategist" is good, but only for two person zero sum games if I recall correctly. Feudenber and someone who's name escapes me (the book is at my office) wrote the definitive text by all accounts, but it does not look like an easy read. (It's a graduate level text book).

I'd google it, there is a lot of good game theory information out there free for the reading.

Oh, and a great book that only touches lightly on game thoery but covers a lot of other fun topics in a fun way is "Conned Again, Watson" by Collin Bruce.