**** Official Non-Poker Links That Somehow Relate To Poker Thread *** (AKA CMAR's Blog) - Micro Stakes Full Ring Games

**Cry Me A River** · 05-07-2009, 07:07 PM

You probably already know I love cultural ephemera. And I have a huge soft spot for interdisciplinary study. Or to borrow a buzzword, Synergy. It's always interesting to look at how other fields have approached similar problems and situations. This can lead to all kinds of interesting and unrelated insights into our own.

I'm a bigtime web junkie. I browse dozens of sites daily. Recently I've come across a couple really good links so I'm starting this the to begin collecting these. These are all links that have nothing to do with poker. There's no HSP links here, nothing about the latest attempts to repeal the UIGEA. These are all links that somehow relate to poker but only indirectly.

These are all links that made me go, "Wow".

If you wish to start a discussion thread about any of these links, particularly as they relate to poker please do so. I'll add links to any discussions to this thread. However, I'm going to keep this thread closed and locked so it features only the links themselves. If you find any sites you think belong here, please PM me. If they make me go "Wow" I'll add them here.

**Cry Me A River** · 05-07-2009, 07:08 PM

Yes, this thread is ridiculously self-indulgent.

**Cry Me A River** · 05-07-2009, 07:08 PM

This first link will be familiar to anyone who reads the monthly LC chat thread:

This is a really, really awesome video. Everybody should watch this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/487

It's a TED lecture about cheating (it starts off on an unrelated topic, but it really gets there).

Obviously a lot of it really applies to poker. In particular, I was struck by his observation that abstracting value increases cheating. Poker benefits greatly by abstracting value both in live games and online - chips are a fabulous invention that make it so much easier for fish to donk off money - But that obviously must also lead to an increased chance of cheating.

It's also interesting how being reminded of morality decreases cheating and it doesn't seem to matter to source of that morality (ten commandments or honour code). I'm not sure how online sites or casinos could make use of this, but, this may have some real world applications in home games.

Anyway, a very, very good video. Highly recommended.

His blog is here:

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/

And it's really really good. Some more videos by him here:

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?page_id=7#videos

**Cry Me A River** · 05-07-2009, 07:09 PM

An article from The New Yorker, How David Beats Goliath.

It's about how underdogs win. More importantly, it's about how underdogs can consistently win if they take the right approach. That approach can generally be summed up as A) Look for rules exploits and B) Outwork the favorite. Indeed B) is often a key component of A) and favorites often employ very conventional, well known, "easy" or "lazy" tactics that are vulnerable to being out-hustled and they're often not flexible or adaptable to unexpected situations. References military history and basketball.

Very, very interesting stuff.

**Cry Me A River** · 05-07-2009, 07:11 PM

A few straight up game theory illustrations from the movies. Anybody even vaguely familiar with game theory (or popular movies) should know these so they may not be "Wow" moments. But this thread can't really be without them.

Nash's Equilibrium from A Beautiful Mind. Obviously has tons of applications in poker. Especially bubble type situations but also reg wars where we're often trying to break equilibrium (ie; 3betting and reacting to 3bets).

Vizzini illustrates leveling in this Battle of Wits from The Princess Bride.

The final showdown from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is a similar situation.

While we're on the subject of riggedness, War Games offers this solution while Indiana Jones wins a swordfight. I would have liked to include the line from The Untouchables about bringing a knife to a gunfight but it's not on youtube, so instead Robert de Niro as Al Capone explains baseball and teamwork. Not that poker is a team sport, but whatever. Classic scene.

And while we're on movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger explains What is best in life from Conan The Barbarian. Because poker is competition after all.

Finally, I'm going to break my own rule for this thread a moment and post possibly the greatest poker scene ever filmed, from Cool Hand Luke because sometimes nothing is a real cool hand.

**Cry Me A River** · 05-09-2009, 03:53 PM

Today's link comes courtesy of JH1.

Another TED lecture, this one is on Expected Value in everyday life and why people are bad at making decisions and planning for the future.

My one quibble about the lecture is that when he's discussing lotteries he doesn't do a good job explaining why lotteries suck. It's not because winning is unlikely! Longshots can still be +EV. Indeed, given that the utility value of a lot of money is more than linearly greater than a very small amount of money a break-even or even a slightly -EV lottery would still be attractive. That is, unless you are very poor, one million dollars is actually more than a million times better than one dollar.

No, the reason that the lottery is such a bad deal is that the rake is very high (usually well over 50% and sometimes close to 75%) compared to other forums of gambling. You'd generally be much better off dropping a dollar in a progressive jackpot slot machine than spending it on the lottery.

Which is unfortunate because much of his lecture is about people's unwillingness to to exercise patience or delay gratification. So he comes dangerously close to contradicting himself. Still, a very good layman's explanation of EV and decision making.

**Cry Me A River** · 05-10-2009, 07:32 PM

This went semi-viral (posted on a bunch of sites) a couple months ago but for whatever reason I didn't think to include this in the initial flurry of posts. Berkeley Game Theory Class About Starcraft. Of course we all know Starcraft is exactly like poker

. For me the biggest "Wow" moment here is the idea of attention is a resource, in the same way in game items like money and minerals (or chips and cards) are resources. As a heavy multi-tabler this is a very intriguing concept.

There's also a lengthy 2+2 thread about this, Starcraft College Video (UC Berkeley Teaches Starcraft Game Theory class).

**Cry Me A River** · 05-11-2009, 02:50 PM

Lost Vegas - Documentary on Las Vegas' current economic woes. A little bit preachy/gloating at times ("Haha, capitalism suxors!") but well worth watching. Seems like a very good time to move to Vegas and buy a house if you don't need to worry about finding a job there. Definitely be careful about renting though.

**Cry Me A River** · 05-12-2009, 06:49 PM

How Lying Works, an article from How Stuff Works. Not nearly as awesome as some of the previous but a solid primer. It certainly fits this "blog".

Along these lines, you might also consider giving the TV series Lie To Me (sorry to anyone outside the USA) a try (Wikipedia entry here). It's more of a guilty pleasure than a classic but it can be pretty entertaining. And it's all about lies and the lying liars who tell them.