http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/cims/courses/courseformfl.asp

Hold'em or Fold'em: Poker and Probability

This course explores fundamental concepts of elementary probability theory 
and statistics, which are useful in a very wide variety of scientific 
applications. Students learn the basic foundations of probability, including addition and multiplication rules, conditional probability, expected values, and combinatorics. Important statistical concepts such as standard deviation, the law of large numbers, the central limit theorem, standard errors, and confidence intervals are also discussed. All of these topics, which are broadly applicable in the sciences, are motivated by examples of situations and concepts that arise naturally when playing Texas Hold'em, a game of strategy and chance whose complexity is surprising and whose popularity is rapidly increasing. The examples used will be real hands from the World Series of Poker and other professional Hold'em competitions.

1. Sklansky, D. (2005). The Theory of Poker, 4th ed. Two Plus Two Publishing, Henderson, NV.

2. Ferguson, T.S., Shapley, L.S., and Macqueen, J.B., editors (1996). "Statistics, Probability and Game Theory : Papers in Honor of David Blackwell," Institute of Mathematical Statistics Lecture Notes v. 30. Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Hayward, CA.

3. Harrington, D. and Robertie, B. (2005). Harrington on Hold'em. Two Plus Two Publishing, Henderson, NV.

There will be weekly readings and discussions, and one simple computer simulation assignment due the last day of class.

Frederic Paik Schoenberg is a Professor of Statistics at UCLA. He earned his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1997 and specializes in point processes and their applications in the environmental sciences.