Game Theory at the Gate

CNN reports that,

The Transportation Security Administration stood by its security officers Sunday after a Florida woman complained that her cancer-stricken, 95-year-old mother was patted down and forced to remove her adult diaper while going through security.

At least from what I can tell from this article, the entirety of … Read full post

Mailbag: Check-Raised on the Flop

(I’ve made blog posts out of responses to reader-submitted questions before, but it never occurred to me to actively solicit such questions for a regular feature until now! So welcome to the first Thinking Poker Mailbag, and please read on for information about how to submit your own question!)

Q: Read full post

On Not Protecting

Here’s an archived hand that illustrates a key point from my Betting for Protection article. The idea is that you don’t have to worry about protecting against a draw if you expect your opponent to bluff very often when he misses his draw. Essentially your implied odds from catching bluffs … Read full post

Happy 40th Anniversary, War on Drugs!

Today marks the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s declaration of “war on drugs”, a quagmire that has proven far more expensive and deadly than the Vietnam War that he inherited. Put simply, the war on drugs is an ongoing decision to address America’s drug problem as a fundamentally criminal, rather … Read full post

Tales From a 7-11: Customers

One of my co-workers introduced me to the workplace cliche that “this job wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the customers,” which in my naivete I believed to be both original and uniquely applicable to my job. Today, instead of a single story, I’m going to share a … Read full post

Dealing With a Bad Table Draw

Now that the WSOP is in full-swing, many players will be taking a shot or two at events well above their usual buy-in levels. This can be a great opportunity, because the $1000 and $1500 NLHE events attract hundreds of players weaker than what you’d see in an average $20 … Read full post

Backing and Bad Deals

Although I’ve occasionally sold action, I’ve never had a long-term backing deal, and I’ve never wanted one. I have a few horses but I’m generally very reluctant to stake anyone else. My thinking on this is as follows:

To the extent that the backer has an edge on a deal, … Read full post

Extra Credit

Here’s an interesting hand that one of my students shared with me. We’d been working on bet-sizing, and his assignment for the week was to find spots to under- and over-bet the pot.

His reads here were that the BTN was a weak regular and the BB was on the … Read full post