Bluffing in poker and game theory

I came across an interesting video clip about bluffing in poker.

The video clip features mathematician Ken Binmore and concerns betting strategy in poker. Binmore explains why poker pros bluff wildly and suggests the reason why amateurs don’t bluff enough.

The advice was timely as it actually helped me in my most recent friendly poker game. Though admittedly, I am far from arriving at an optimal mix.

Here is the two minute video clip, courtesy of ponderabout.com. Be sure to watch till the end with the Star Trek clip of a virtual reality poker game between Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Data:

Link to Youtube video The art of bluffing

My transcription of the video

[Narrator] Game theory. That means using equations and logic to work out the best way to play a game. One of the games mathematician Ken Binmore enjoys studying is poker.

[Binmore] You have to go to the world poker championships–you know where they play for millions of dollars, very experienced players–and you see them sit at the table. And they bluff like crazy, with really bad hands, with really large sums of money. This is what turned me on to game theory in the first place. And I just didn’t believe it could be optimal to bluff so much, as is frequently the case in game theory.

[Narrator] Okay, I’m going to try this out on Friday night.

[Binmore] Haha. You probably don’t bluff enough, because the reason you are bluffing is not because you might win it. You are bluffing because you want to be called sometimes when you are bluffing so that people can see that sometimes when you bet high, you have a bad hand. If you never bet big with a bad hand, as soon as you bet big, everyone will know you have a good hand, so you will make no money on your good hands. So you bet big on some bad hands so that you will make a lot of money on your good hands.

[Narrator] So game theory is all about developing strategy, and it turns out to be a mix of highly complex mathematics with a large dollop of psychology thrown in.

(Rest is about poker game in Star Trek–just watch it!)