Hi Everyone:

As part of the process of updating all of our books, I'm currently working on my book Poker Essays which was first published in 1991 (with many of the essays written in the three years before 1991). I hadn't read it in a long time and on page 51, part of an essay titled "Computerized Hold 'em" the following paragraph appears:

To prove my point, suppose you are playing in a typical Las Vegas $10-$20 or $20-$40 game. If a player raises before the flop, it usually means that his hand is much stronger than it would be if he just called before the flop. Consequently, the programmer should use a different range of hands for when there is a raise than he uses for when there is only a call. But some players occasionally do call with very strong hands, such as two aces. This means that the programmer also should allocate a small probability to the calling hands, making them extremely powerful.

I bolded the word "range" because this is the first time I believe the word "range" appeared in the poker literature used this way. I'm wondering if anyone knows of an earlier example.

Best wishes,
Mason

lmao OK

Old Testament refers to ranges in a card game they played in Egypt.

So suck it

Lou, we can always rely on you.

In 1976 the book Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky was published. In it are the Sklansky Hand Groups, and David tells you what Groups to play depending on the situation.Notice that even though the word "range" is not used, he is talking about ranges of hands.

Mason

First time I saw an in depth explanation on the application of the concept was an article in Bluff magazine by Phil Galfond. The G-Bucks article.

Tri Nguyen had a book called Let There Be Range.

Taylor Caby from Cardrunner's training vids is my first recollection in the use of the modern intended terminology, that predates Tri Nguyen.

Which was well after both Taylor and Phil.

Thread is off to a promising start.

Soulja Boy was the first rapper to talk about range cmon now

Tom Brady invented the forward pass

Fler invented the range

Mason, the only two books that would have a chance of mentioning range prior to 1991 would be Brunson's "Supersystem" in 1978 and Norman Zadah's "Winning Poker Systems" in 1973 that weren't in the 2+2 universe. A keyword search on a Kindle in those two books should give you the answer. As a math professor at the time, Zadah is probably more likely to have used the term "range." But I suspect he used the term "set" if he did refer to it.

Also if Mason has a prop bet on the initial documented origin of the usage of Range, I hope he wins all the $$$$$$.

The 20th Century gambling theory innovator, John Patrick, may have coined the term "range" as it applies to poker, but in VHS video not a book. They used to have volumes of his videos at the local library and the patrons just devoured them.

John Patrick was the Jonathan Little, Phil Galfond, Doug Polk, and Matt Berkey of his day. He was a beast of poker video coaching. He paved the way for today's coaching sites, which really aren't "coaching" sites but rather video libraries.

range (n.)

c. 1200, renge, "row or line of persons" (especially hunters or soldiers), from Old French reng, renge "a row, line, rank," from Frankish *hring or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz "circle, ring, something curved" (from nasalized form of PIE root *sker- (2) "to turn, bend"). In some cases the Middle English word is from Old French range "range, rank," a variant of reng.

The general sense of "line, row" is attested from early 14c.; the meaning "row of mountains" is by 1705. The meaning "scope, extent" is by late 15c.; that of "area over which animals seek food" is from 1620s, from the verb. Specific U.S. sense of "series of townships six miles in width" is from 1785. Sense of "distance a gun can send a bullet" is recorded from 1590s; meaning "place used for shooting practice" is from 1862. In the game of poker, the term is believed first used by Doyle Brunson, around 1836,following the Battle of the Alamo, in the context of a card game played in his home out on the range in Texas, called Hold-em.The cooking appliance has been so called since mid-15c., for reasons unknown. Originally it was a stove built into a fireplace with openings on top for multiple operations. Range-finder "instrument for measuring the distance of an object" is attested from 1872.

I first heard that attribution from an old man dealing stud in Gatlinburg in mid-July, as reported in the song Boy Named Sue", and so can't vouch for its accuracy, either in substance or as a quotation.

Frankly, I don't buy this Critical Range Theory bull crap.

Mason,

Did you miss out on filing for a patent for "Computerized Holdem " in 1991 ?

well before we rush into additional claims of the OP's various creations, lets all pay homage to Mr. Sidley who was inventing things before the OP could even spell poker.

https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...y=PN%2F4760527




that all aside. the claims asserted by OP in this thread made me immediately think of this.

No. The first time I played poker in a public cardroom (in California) was in 1979 which is seven years before your reference.

MM

Mason's point is legit. He and David were on board with this well before it became mainstream.

Oh, and on that note, since Al Gore was invoked...

"But the men who did invent the internet, TCP/IP designers Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf, wrote in Gore’s defense in 2000. They argue that Gore was “the first political leader to recognize the importance of the internet and to promote and support its development.”

“As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speedtelecommunications,” the pair wrote. “As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an ‘Interagency Network.’” Gore sponsored the 1991 High Performance Computing and Communications Act, which Kahn and Cerf say “became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the internet beyond the field of computer science.“

I would check Von Neumann’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. He solves toy poker games where players are dealt hands over the interval [0,1]. Range is not an unreasonable word for him to use to describe that game. If it’s not used there you can be reasonably sure it doesn’t occur in any math or economics literature in reference to poker prior to 1944….at least in English.

This.

And this.

Gore gets a lot of grief over that quote, and he certainly deserved some as it was pretty silly, but he clearly was a political leader on this front.

same could be said for this thread. which is why I have been making fun of it since post #2 abd why I made the ref.

But who I am I to judge ones need tp be silly

Phil Hellmuth uses the word "range" in this historic tournament from 1999...He says it at exactly the 1:12:09 mark. And he used it in the modern and contemporary way that it is used today. The game is No Limit Holdem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCd2...LostPokerMedia

Hellmuth was 20 years ahead of the GTO crowd.

I did a cursory google search of poker "hand range" with a specified custom date range and this is the earliest citation I found. FYI, the quotes in the search term indicate a literal phrase that must be present to be considered a match. It's in French and dated 11/30/1999:

Original French:
Dans cette situation, une seule main, QJ, à une chance sur deux de s’imposer contre une seule des mains de la hand range d’un tight raiser, TT. De ce fait, un bon joueur doit avoir la discipline de ne pas rentrer sans avoir au moins {JJ, AKs, AKo}

Translated to English by Google:
In this situation, only one hand, QJ, has a 50/50 chance of winning against just one hand in a tight raiser's hand range, TT. Therefore, a good player must have the discipline not to return without having at least {JJ, AKs, AKo}

Source: https://www.ruedesjoueurs.com/poker/...s-preflop.html

-------------------------------

The next earliest citation I found searching for poker "range of hands" is this cardplayer article from 12/31/1991:

If he reraises, then at least I can put him on a range of hands such as a draw, two pair, set, etc.

Source: https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-new...tilt-1k-monday