Help Me Find Reading Material for a Poker Lecture

[Moozh]

Hey everyone,

I have a weekly seminar with my lab group (we focus on Complex Adaptive Systems), where every week we explore a new topic somewhat relavent to our group. For the Friday after next, I've voluteered to lead a discussion on Poker as a complex adaptive system.

The more I've played, the more I see the poker games as a continuously evolving system of strategies. Certain strategies are favored over others, but as those strategies become commonplace (as the winners remain and the losers drop out) other new strategies become available that beat the current 'hot way to play' (think rock/paper/scissors perhaps). This of course is just from my observations.

Anyway, most of the guys in my group haven't played poker, or at best know 5 card draw. I would like to focus on cash NL hold'em, so I feel I need to educate most of them. I could use some help picking out some reading materials for them. You can probably assume everyone is very solid mathematically.

My basic ideas so far:

Basic Rules
Pot Odds
Fundamental Theorem
Position
Aggressive/Passive and Loose/Tight
Shania
Trading Mistakes

I love the Trading Mistakes section in Ed's NL book. Shania also has an obvious reading that goes with it.

I could really use some help isolating a few pages or a chapter from some of the big books like TOP, SSH, and Ed's NL. Other links to forum posts or other books would be great too. Also, are there any other topics you guys think I need to include for my labbies to be able to contribute to this seminar? Or, feel free to respond if you want to talk about viewing poker as a complex adaptive system.

Thanks for the help.

[mvdgaag]

Hi... there are some articles you might be able to use:

D. Billings et. al, approximating game-theoretic optimal strategies for full-scale poker

J. Noble: Finding robust texas hold'em poker strategies using pareto coevolution and deterministic crowding

A. Davidson: Using artificial neural networks to model opponents in texas hold'em

GL

[PhantomGoose]

The "switching gears" part of Doyle's NLHE Super System. Simple, but addresses the point.

[RobNottsUk]

Why do NLHE if they are not already players?

Seems to me, you are making things uncessarily complicated for yourself, and would be better using a Fixed Limit structure. I'd use Schoonmaker's Pyschology of Poker book, and focus on the different types of players, and how the "TAG" adapts strategy to correctly crush the game!