Applied math takes on a whole new meaning
By Rhea Cortado
May 12, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Back in the 1990s, members of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology blackjack team jetted off to Las Vegas and hustled
casinos out of millions of dollars using borderline illegal
card-counting techniques.
The team’s story is documented in The New York Times
Best-Seller “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six
MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.”
Those MIT students did what everyone who loses in Vegas wishes
they could do. But blackjack is admittedly beatable through the
application of statistics knowledge. Poker ““ a hybrid of math
and psychology — now that’s a real challenge. Chris
Ferguson, a UCLA alumnus and winner of the 2000 World Series of
Poker in the No-Limit Texas Hold ’em main event, is notorious
for his application of mathematics in winning poker
championships.
Ferguson graduated from UCLA with a doctorate in computer
science (specializing in artificial intelligence) and has
co-written academic papers on poker with his father, statistics
Professor Emeritus Thomas Ferguson.
“In poker, Chris is much beyond me. He helps me, you might
say,” the elder Ferguson conceded.
At 2 a.m., after a long day competing in this year’s World
Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Chris divulged how mathematics have
improved his game. “The top players innately know a lot of
the (strategies I know from mathematics) from playing for years and
years. Mathematics has enabled me to understand how to play very
quickly, from a logical standpoint, as opposed to just sitting down
and trying to wing it and trying to learn from experience and
mistakes.”
Though elaborate, Professor Ferguson explained that mathematical
equations can never simulate real game play. “Poker is a
rather complex game, and to make mathematical sense of it, you have
to make a lot of assumptions (and take away) a lot of the details
of the game that really make it a more interesting game,”
Ferguson said.
His son pointed out that since mathematical strategies can only
give solutions to simple situations, it’s up to the player to
apply solutions to more complicated situations. When math fails,
Chris uses his computer science background to find a solution.
“(Writing software) basically teaches me how to play
poker. It’s an extension of the mathematical analysis. Some
problems you can’t even solve mathematically, so then I go to
computer simulations and solve these problems, and then I’ll
apply them out in the real world,” Chris said.
If the mathematical aspect were the only factor in poker, then
the final table at the World Series of Poker wouldn’t be
filled with trash-talkers in sunglasses. Luck and the unpredictable
psychological aspect of reading the opponent are the elements that
make the game exciting.
Nicknamed “Jesus” in the poker world, Chris utilizes
his signature long, wavy hair, scraggly beard, and cowboy hat as a
form of misdirection. Underneath that façade is a
computer-programming ballroom swing dancer (he discovered this
passion at UCLA and subsequently became the president of the
Ballroom Dance Club during his graduate days), who can cut a banana
in half by throwing a playing card like a ninja star at 70 mph.
As evidenced by Chris’ diversity of interests, poker
players come from all walks of life. Mathematics Professor James
White, whose research focuses on geometry and molecular biology,
doesn’t apply any advanced statistics or probability
knowledge when he plays poker recreationally. He laughs at the
thought of consciously figuring out the mathematics behind the
game; to him, it simply wouldn’t be as fun.
But in poker, after the odds have been calculated, a little luck
can never hurt.
Chris recounted his winning hand at the tournament in 2000 as he
went head-to-head against the legendary T.J. Cloutier. “I
still had a 30 percent chance of winning, a very close call.
“¦ Normally, I’m not willing to gamble against a lot of
poker players. I’m going to try and outplay them. But T.J.
Cloutier is a very strong player. I was willing to take a
gamble.”
