The Mathematics of Poker
by Bill Chen, Jerrod Ankenman
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Book Reviews of The Mathematics of Poker
Book Review: Not for everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
Firstly, if you have not taken at least one statistics course, you probably won't understand much in this book. There are also some topics using calculus, but are explained in a way to where you may not actually need to understand the calculus in order to understand the point they are trying to make. I am currently in college and have only taken Statistics I, and Calculus I & II so far and I really had to focus in some parts of the book in order to follow the math.
I learned A LOT from this book and was very happy that I read it early in my "poker career." It goes extremely deep into seemingly-simple topics and shows how you can eek out a slight percentage advantage in certain situations. I benefited the most from the parts covering "optimal play" where some interesting points were made.
I own ~10 no-limit hold'em books (most of the popular ones) and this book was by far the most advanced book I have read. I would highly recommend this book to any intermediate/advanced players looking to improve their game, but not if you can't handle a lot of math; this book isn't for everyone.
Book Review: the T.O.P for the new millenium
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is difficult for people without an advanced math background. It is a theoretical book that will evolve your thinking about the game. The content however is ground breaking as it is the only book that brings game theory into the game of poker.
I am a 2-4nl online regular (6-tabling) and have every poker book worth mentioning. This is a must have!!! Having a master in theoretical physics obviously helped me understand the notation but I don't think you need to understand all math to get something from reading this book. It has lots of good stuff that can be applied like, how fast does my win rate (BB/100) converge to 95% probability.
If you are interesting in game theory but not so familiar with the math, then I could recommend some of the less technical books on the subject (just search on game theory) and get a feeling for the subject. If you haven't already reached an advanced level in poker (or have a master in mathematics) I recommend that you first make sure you have read: Harrington, Sklansky, Supersystem II and Maybe Phil Gordon's green book.
Book Review: excellent for narrow type of player
Summary: 4 Stars
This book takes around 15 very narrow specific "toy games" (ie. i can only make one bet, and you can only call or fold), and runs thru some very dense, mathematical calculations to draw some conclusions and principles for real poker play. I found the principles and math to be very valuable, and I learned alot about how to play drawing hands, and how to think about what actions to take with a range of hands.
But it took alot of thinking and re-reading to get there. and it is not presented in an easy-to-digest way. However, if you are pretty smart, mathematically-oriented, like to study things to get better at them, then this is a very good book because it is the only one i've found that applies games theory to poker and gives you advice on how to holistically play across many hands (as opposed to advice on how to play one specific hand). but this book is only for the serious advanced player.
Book Review: Not for poker players
Summary: 2 Stars
Very little information relevant to poker players. Hard to separate the formula derivations from the concepts of the book.
The book examines a multitude of toy games with some similarities to poker and find the optimal strategy for each. There is one chapter (6 pages) on applying the conclusions to poker, it is not very concrete though. I haven't read the tournament section (28 pages) because I only play cash games so I can't comment on it.
For a No-Limit cash game player, there is very little value in this book. In fairness, it can teach someone to think in terms of a balanced strategy and playing different types of hands the same way. The example where they describe a player that raises a lot but folds too much to a reraise can open to eyes of some players. Anyway it could fit on a 2-pager instead of an almost 400 pages book using small fonts.
Book Review: If you didn't major in Math, don't get this book.
Summary: 1 Stars
So I made it through Calculus II in college about 8 years ago and felt like I needed to complete my math major before understanding this book. It goes a little too deep into the mathmatics of poker. Actually, way too deep. The equations used to make their point are ridiculous in length. I guess I was hoping for simpler math that can be easily used at the table to compute different pot odds, etc. This is not that book. This is good for in depth study of poker mathematics and discussion groups... such as an actual classroom study over several months. They have good points but it can all be summed up easily after taking out the 95% of fluff used in math language...but then the book would only be about 20 pages long. Instead here is what happens when math geniuses get to author a book.