Thinking In Bets
Moderator: Dux
-
Topic author - Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 21247
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:54 am
- Location: Upon the eternal throne of the great Republic of Turdistan
Thinking In Bets
Book by former professional poker player Annie Duke about using applied probability to improve decision making. The concept is great-- judge decisions by the odds of success rather than just by outcome (which could just be luck). She uses a lot of examples from the professional gambling world which made for great stories. As the book goes along, I kept expecting it to devolve into filler, but she kept adding a professional gambler's logic and best practices to basic concepts in interesting ways. It's kind of a more accessible mix between Daniel Kahneman and Nassim Taleb. I liked it a lot.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
-
- Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 11367
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:08 pm
Re: Thinking In Bets
Annie Duke is Matt Furey of poker.
One of the downsides of the Internet is that it allows like-minded people to form communities, and sometimes those communities are stupid.
-
Topic author - Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 21247
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:54 am
- Location: Upon the eternal throne of the great Republic of Turdistan
Re: Thinking In Bets
Eh? Go on...
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
Re: Thinking In Bets
Gambling is for degenerates.

"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
-
- Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 11367
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:08 pm
Re: Thinking In Bets
She tends to just-so-happen to be involved in high profile business failures that involve money going missing.
https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/2 ... annie-duke
https://www.playusa.com/annie-duke-cnbc-interview/
He record as a player suggests a period of running well when the game was softer.
tl/dr scam artist of middling ability.
One of the downsides of the Internet is that it allows like-minded people to form communities, and sometimes those communities are stupid.
-
- Sergeant Commanding
- Posts: 6394
- Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:11 pm
Re: Thinking In Bets
(((Annie Duke)))
Srsly.
Srsly.
Re: Thinking In Bets
I've always found game theory to be fascinating, but difficult to find resources in a way that is easily accessible for my mind.
Thanks for the rec!
Thanks for the rec!
“If it won't matter in a year, don't spend more than a day stressing about it."
-
Topic author - Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 21247
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:54 am
- Location: Upon the eternal throne of the great Republic of Turdistan
Re: Thinking In Bets
I was wondering why she quit being a professional gambler. I mean why quit when you're eleeete and you love it. I had no idea about the rest.Grandpa's Spells wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 5:37 pmShe tends to just-so-happen to be involved in high profile business failures that involve money going missing.
https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/2 ... annie-duke
https://www.playusa.com/annie-duke-cnbc-interview/
He record as a player suggests a period of running well when the game was softer.
tl/dr scam artist of middling ability.
That said, the book is still excellent.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
-
- Top
- Posts: 2311
- Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:08 am
- Location: Down in the cane brake, close by the mill
Re: Thinking In Bets
Don't worry about the odds, just embezzle from your bank and bet $70,000 per hand!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owning_Mahowny
(An underrated Phillip Seymour Hoffman film IMO.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owning_Mahowny
(An underrated Phillip Seymour Hoffman film IMO.)
“Wherever the crowd goes, run the other direction. They’re always wrong.” Bukowski
Re: Thinking In Bets
Turdacious wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 4:09 pmI was wondering why she quit being a professional gambler. I mean why quit when you're eleeete and you love it. I had no idea about the rest.Grandpa's Spells wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 5:37 pmShe tends to just-so-happen to be involved in high profile business failures that involve money going missing.
https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/2 ... annie-duke
https://www.playusa.com/annie-duke-cnbc-interview/
He record as a player suggests a period of running well when the game was softer.
tl/dr scam artist of middling ability.
That said, the book is still excellent.
I haven't read the book but did catch her on the Peter Attia podcast.
She stated that the game has evolved and players are so refined that the top guys now have to do so much math in there heads. She said she wouldn't have been able to keep up.
She makes a persuasive argument that poker is the ultimate game to teach decision making since it deals with both chance and incomplete information. Compare that to chess, which doesn't involve chance and the players have complete information.
-
- Sergeant Commanding
- Posts: 5038
- Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:51 am
Re: Thinking In Bets
"___________ is the Matt Furey of _____________" is sort of a standard insult.
WildGorillaMan wrote:Enthusiasm combined with no skill whatsoever can sometimes carry the day.
-
- Sarge
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:29 pm
Re: Thinking In Bets
I found it to be a surprisingly worthy read. Good info on how humans react based on beliefs vs. doing the hard work of reasoning.
I was familiar with "confirmation bias and "cognitive dissonance" but had never heard of "motivated reasoning" before. The concept that all decisions are essentially bets, and that the odds are that a great decision could have a horrible outcome and a poor decision could have a great outcome is worth keeping in mind because luck is always a factor, as well as unknown or unknowable influencers.
I was familiar with "confirmation bias and "cognitive dissonance" but had never heard of "motivated reasoning" before. The concept that all decisions are essentially bets, and that the odds are that a great decision could have a horrible outcome and a poor decision could have a great outcome is worth keeping in mind because luck is always a factor, as well as unknown or unknowable influencers.
Re: Thinking In Bets
Gambling attracts degenerates and because of that seems to be dominated by them. However, like with any other activity, it's how you do it makes a difference.
Everybody gambles in one form or another. Starting a business, changing a job, investing, getting married (1:1 odds of it not working) and everything else. You just have to know what you are doing. Risk management is the most important thing in this. In the stork market it is size and stops. It's pretty much the same everywhere else.
