Im not a student currently - But looking to take a few classes.

Im looking to take some math classes at a local college purely with the intent of sharpening my math skills, and understanding things better. (for poker)

Would like to hear from some of you experienced people on what classes would be best suited for poker situations - Not even sure if there is an answer to this, but thought Id throw it out there.

Thx

HL

Most college math or CS departments will offer a class that focuses on combinatorics. In CS this is often called "Discrete Math"

Probability and Statistics is useful

I doubt anything beyond the level of statistics without calculus would be useful for playing poker, unless you're somehow using calculus to do some kind of EV maximization where somehow the EV of a play is non-linear (like if there is a curved EV line as a function of bet sizing). I still have my doubts that this would be useful. The important maths is just fold equity calculations, EV calcs, pot odds, etc. which really only needs a good grasp of high school algebra and arithmetic.

I majored in actuarial science, with several classes in calculus / statistics / etc, and the best poker-related class I took was theory of mathematics. Anyone can teach you how to do math, you can even create a spreadsheet in Excel and never have to worry about combinatorics ever again. Only a math theory class can teach you how to think critically and make decisions with less than obvious information.

I have an MS in Math and I dont really think many college level math courses will help you directly with poker. I think the most important math is algebra, basic probability, and learning to count combinatorically.

I think more importantly, math courses teach how to think about things mathematically or logically. Taking proof intensive courses like analysis can help with logical thought and puzzle solving ability. I took a class called "foundations of math" which was basically an introduction to rigorous proofs. I would definitely recommend something like this if it is offered.

I think developing a mathematical mindset is infinitely more valuable than being able to calculate standard deviations or do regressions.

Math is idiotic...

My advice would be statistics/probability. (+1 for Learn combinations, probability is good for training a mind set).

A discrete math class, for me was a class that asked questions like, given wall paper that repeats every 16in, how many rolls of 12inx10ft rolls are needed to fill a room of given dimensions. You have to account for the repeat, rolls don't always start at the same point, est. I think this would be good for poker since poker is optimization of countless variables.

Agreed. I started as a Stats major CS minor for 2 years before switching to CS major with a specialization in Computer Theory, and if I had to pick just one course to suggest, I think this would be it. It will teach you way more than just combinatorics. It will teach you fundamentally different ways of thinking about math and numbers.

Be warned, though this was a "weeder" course where I went. Heard one rumour that a full 70% dropped out of the CS program due to this course (it was required there)... that may be an exaggeration but it definitely did get rid of a lot. Likely most of those didn't know what they wanted to do and picked CS because they heard it was an easy cruise to big $$, so I don't think the material's actually that hard, but it is very likely still going to take a lot of work to get something out of it.

I agree, IF you don't just take the cheap basic intro course that a lot of places offer. Usually that's intended as a background course for those going into fields where it might be useful (like econ and other sciences). Take a stats course(s) offered for math majors/minors. The deeper ones go into the more useful stuff like Bayes Theorem, confidence intervals, etc. - stuff that the intro course will barely mention, if it does at all.

I think the general conclusion here is that you want to take courses are more theoretical in nature rather than empirical. For instance, I once took a probability/statistics course in the math department. We didn't even need a computer for this course (which shocked me). It was about probability theory and statistical theory.

I also took a statistics course in the psychology department. It was all applied statistics and probability. You needed a calculator and often a computer.

If you just want to get a better grasp of how mathematics applies to poker, I think you want something more theoretical. Definitely something that covers Bayes'. But if I were to do it all over again, I would definitely take some CS courses because that stuff would be really useful right now.