Review, Advanced Limit Holdem Strategy (Tanenbaum)

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Everyone:

I did a little more research (plus a friend had a better memory than me). The term illusion of action appears in HPFAP. Here's the quote from the Psychology chapter of the current edition:

[ QUOTE ]
Another example of this type of play is to throw in an extra raise early in a hand with cards that don’t really warrant it, in order to give the illusion of action. For instance, you can occasionally raise the pot with a hand like 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. This play costs only a fraction of a bet in mathematical expectation, but gains you a tremendous amount in future action on subsequent hands. However, this play should probably not be made in loose games where you are against people who play too many hands and go too far with their hands, because you get excess action anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except for the last sentence, this same paragraph appears in the original edition of HPFAP that was first published in 1988. We give a similar "illusion of action" example in SCSFAP which was first published in 1989 and which Ray Zee is one of the authors.

But it shows up in our work even earlier than that. In David's book Essays on Poker which was published in 1981 (and is now part of the book Sklansky on Poker this exact same example appears.

Also, notice that we are using the term illusion of action in almost the same way that Tannebaum is.

Best wishes,
Mason