a very interesting story

[philecon]

I don't know if anyone has posted this link or anything (I haven't combed through the archives that hard), but this sure is a great story.

Accidental Economist - US News and World Report

[pookie bear]

Stuff like that inspires me to work just a little harder to achieve my goals in academia.

[ZomgRogged]

This is an interesting article. It goes along with how I've seen similarities between poker and rationality in the market. I spent my frosh year playing cards online for beer money I found that behavior especially in tournament structure greatly relates to game theory, but that is a post for another time.

Thanks for the article.

[unitroot]

Note that the article was written in 1999. Prof. Odean is now teaching at Haas School of Business. I was kind of confused at first, trying to find his web page on UC Davis web site..

[philecon]

Originally Posted by unitroot

Note that the article was written in 1999. Prof. Odean is now teaching at Haas School of Business. I was kind of confused at first, trying to find his web page on UC Davis web site..

Yeah, I googled his name after I read the article, but I wasn't able to write that down. Sorry.

[YoungEconomist]

Originally Posted by ZomgRogged

This is an interesting article. It goes along with how I've seen similarities between poker and rationality in the market.

I've also played a lot of poker (both cash games and tournaments) in casino and online. I've also thought about this. Although I'm not quite sure if we're on the same page. Are you saying that poker players seem rational or irrational? I tend to think that many of the players are irrational in that they are too often guided by emotions, and often don't make the plays in accordance with expected value (more specifically, they play many hands and stay in hands, that have a large negative expected value). I guess even in this case it'd be hard to call them irrational though, as maybe it's just a bounded rationality problem (where they don't know much about correct strategy, and are trying to maximize their expected profits given what they know). Or maybe they maximize utility by making poor decisions, because as you know, it's boring for a lot of people to play poker correctly and fold many hands and play "tight" poker (in other words, winning strategy can often be boring because there's less action and more waiting/watching).

[ZomgRogged]

Originally Posted by YoungEconomist

I've also played a lot of poker (both cash games and tournaments) in casino and online. I've also thought about this. Although I'm not quite sure if we're on the same page. Are you saying that poker players seem rational or irrational? I tend to think that many of the players are irrational in that they are too often guided by emotions, and often don't make the plays in accordance with expected value (more specifically, they play many hands and stay in hands, that have a large negative expected value). I guess even in this case it'd be hard to call them irrational though, as maybe it's just a bounded rationality problem (where they don't know much about correct strategy, and are trying to maximize their expected profits given what they know). Or maybe they maximize utility by making poor decisions, because as you know, it's boring for a lot of people to play poker correctly and fold many hands and play "tight" poker (in other words, winning strategy can often be boring because there's less action and more waiting/watching).

I think it is best to say most players play "incorrectly". I played mainly sit n goes, multitable sit n goes, and heads up cash. Many players make plays over and over that are -EV as you say. Most players definitely make irrational emotion based play, which I felt related to the article where the study showed many traders were making what I would classify in poker as feel plays.

Anyhow if you've played sit n goes I am sure you know about ICM which gives hard and fast answers to the "correct" play in end game situations. Possible divergence from this strategy by a thinking player would have to come from misjudging an opponents range of holdings, tilt, or in the very rare case where you make a -EV play against another good thinking player for metagame purposes (intensely related to game theory I believe).

At any rate I'm derailing this thread. If you would like to discuss at length PM me.

[Thesus]

I have a friend who dropped out of his M.Sc to play poker professionally...he won $1.67m a couple weeks back in Las Vegas. Sorry to have missed that party.

[asianeconomist]

Originally Posted by Thesus

I have a friend who dropped out of his M.Sc to play poker professionally...he won $1.67m a couple weeks back in Las Vegas. Sorry to have missed that party.

He certainly isn't the first one:

MIT Blackjack Team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Btw, anyone saw the movie ?

[Lokayot]

"For example, Caucasian actors played most of the team members instead of reflecting the male Asian makeup of the team" - That is just hilarious.