Texas Hold'em Odds

Odds are part of any gambling strategy and Texas Hold'em Poker is highly predisposed to probability-based decisions. The book presents the mathematics involved in card distributions in Texas Hold'em and provides a precise account of the odds associated with all gaming events.
The author is a recognized authority on casino mathematics. He is member of applied mathematics societies and has published numerous articles in leading academic and gaming industry as well as applied mathematics journals. He is also author of "Probability Guide of Gambling" book.

No formal background in mathematics is necessary for reading this book, although comfort with some probability and set theory notions is helpful. In most cases, you'll need some college math to follow the formulas here, but this is not a requirement, because the numerical results are collected in tables at the end of each section.

The work is packed with formulas, algorithms and tables. Its primary goal is to allow the reader to quickly find the odds for own hand and for opponent's hand, in order to improve his/her betting decisions. Every type of card distribution is tabulated in a logical, consistent, and comprehensive manner. The complete methodology and all the calculations are shown, so it teaches the player how to calculate probability for any situation for every stage of the game, even for other card games.
You will find here the real odds, returned by precise mathematical formulas and not by partial simulations that most software uses.

The book contains much new and original material that has not been done previously and provides a full coverage of Hold'em odds:
- Immediate odds (pre-flop odds, flop odds, turn odds, river odds, odds of improving specific hands)
- Long-shot odds (odds of achieving specific card formations by river) for own hand, in after-flop and after-turn stages
- Long-shot odds for opponent's hand (odds for one and at least one of your opponents to achieve specific card formations by river), in after-flop, after-turn and after-river stages
- Other odds.

Concrete examples of calculations and usage of tables are attached to each section. A special chapter of examples is included for a good understanding of how to count and compare the odds for expected own card formations and the odds of possible higher formations of opponents.

Such information is a must for any Hold'em player, either beginner or advanced and this book is a trusted and professional source.

Catalin Barboianu (born in 1968, in Craiova, Romania) is a mathematician and author. He graduated Faculty of Mathematics, at University of Bucharest, in 1992, with a master degree in Probability and Mathematical Statistics. He studied under great scientific names like Solomon Marcus, Constantin Craciun and Ion Cuculescu. He worked early in his career on topology, mathematical analysis, probability theory, mathematical modeling and also on philosophy of mathematics. However, his most important contribution was on decision theory, placing the concept of probability-based strategy onto a firm mathematical foundation. From 2001, his fields of expertise moved to applied mathematics, especially on applications of probability theory in daily life. Since 2003, his work focused on application of probability theory in gaming. His books have a guide style and primly address to non-mathematicians. He also published several articles on leading academic and gaming industry as well and became a recognized authority on mathematics of games and gambling. Barboianu's major concept of approaching mathematics of gambling is to frame each application into a solid probability model and work out compact formulas that return numerical results for a large range of variables, covering each gaming situation. Therefore, his approach is not an exclusively statistical one (like many other titles published on this subject), but analytical. He is a declared opposer of the publications offering probability results based on partial simulations on computer and prefer to work out precise probability formulas, even this requires a significantly higher amount of work.