Application to poker |Poker Strategy|

Application to poker. When a "game theory situation" arises in poker, there is similarly an optimum strategy for each player. Just as in coin-matching a strategy consists of taking different actions (placing a coin as heads or tails) on a percentage basis, so in poker does a strategy consist of making a betting decision on a percentage basis.

Some strategical questions at poker which can be analyzed on a game-theory basis are: How often to bluff; how often to call a possible bluff; how often to bet into a potential high-low call; how often to call high-low without an "immortal" in each direction.

According to the so-called "fundamental theorem of the theory of games," there is always an optimum percentage strategy which will guarantee the player no worse than his true equity in the situation. This corresponds to the half-and-half strategy in coin-matching. However, just as in the coin-matching game, when one player deviates from his optimum strategy, his opponent can take advantage of him by making a corresponding change from his own optimum strategy. Thus, if A has a tendency to stack heads, B should tend to stack more tails.