Chance by Amir D. Aczel

captain2man · #1 01-10-2007, 01:39 AM

Went to the bookstore today to buy a book on probability. As I was math student (I have a B.S. and M.S. in math) - I have some old undergrad texts - but being that I'm a few years removed from that mindsight - I wanted something in a little more layman's terms.

I was in the math section - not the poker section - and found a book by Amir D. Aczel, who does have a Ph.D. (and I realized I did a read a book by him several years ago on Fermat's Last Theorem) called "Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, The Stock Market & Just About Everything Else".

This could be a real interesting read - not DIRECTLY poker related - but you can never know too much probability theory when playing this game. Just wondering if anyone has heard of it or read it.

I'll report back after I have - although I have other books to read before this one.
Here's the amazon link.

CrayZee · #2 01-10-2007, 01:57 AM

I picked this one up at a used book store a few months ago but haven't read it yet. I thought the book cover was pretty (the book packrat likes shiny pretty things) and the author mentioned the fundamental theorem of poker...so he has done at least some homework in the poker thing.

It should be a short,
light read for those versed in math stuff, like yourself.

jtbrandon25 · #3 01-10-2007, 06:29 AM

i too have a b.s in math, and thought that Chance was geared more towards the layperson. interesting, but very simple and mainly history. With your math background, i think you would much prefer The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic, by Epstein, Mathematics of Poker (the beginning is a great review of probability, and the whole book is nothing short of amazing), or perhaps Fortune's Formula by Poundstone (more of a history of advances in probability, game theory, and information theory).

Cherry Garcia · #4 01-16-2007, 06:59 PM

I have read Amir Aczel's book "Chance" and found it interesting despite numerous errors. For example, in the section on poker, he states: "Say you hold a full house and your opponent has a four-flush in five-card draw. If he draws one card, he has a nineteen percent chance of making the flush and beating your full house." I don't think you want to depend on someone who would make that rookie mistake.