Poker

> Abstract:

Succesfull poker players possess some of the most useful skills in the 
world today.  This course will give students an overview of poker 
including basic rules, terminology, and casino play, and then focus in on 
skills nescessary to become an intelligent poker player, including 
betting, bluffing, probability analysis and bankroll management.

> Course Outline:

I.  Why Poker?
II.  What is poker:
  A.  Rules common to all poker variations.
	1.  Basics of 5-card draw 
	2.  Hand Rankings
	3.  Betting rounds
  B.  Popular poker games (rules):
	1.  7-Card Stud
	2.  Texas Hold'em
	3.  Omaha
	4.  Hi-lo
  C.   Poker Terminology and procedure:
	1.  Basic Betting procedures.
		a.  Antes and blinds
		b.  String bets
		c.  Table Stakes
	2.  Colloquial descriptors
III.  Basic Strategy of Poker:
  A.  Hand Selection
	1.  7-Card Stud
	2.  Texas Hold'em
  B.  Betting position
  C.  Memory
	1.  Card-counting
	2.  Betting pattern
  D.  Bluffing
IV.  More advanced strategy:
  A.  Before you play
	1.  Table/seat selection
	2.  Bankroll Management
	3.  General Characteristics (Prejudices worth having)	
  B.  Psychological Play
	1.  Own Patterns
		a.  Advertising bad play
		b.  Switching styles
	2.  Table management
		a.  Changing people's patterns
		b.  Invoking tilt
	3.  Opponent assessment
	4.  Tells (reading opponent's hands)
  C.  Mathematical Play
	1.  Pot-odds, Implied Odds
	2.  Probabilities
	3.  Strenght Assessment
  D.  Other advanced plays
	1.  Check-raising
	2.  Semi-bluffing
V.  Other Topics:
  A.  Betting Structures
	1.  Structured Limit
	2.  Pot limit
	3.  No limit
  B.  Tournaments
	1.  Basic structure
		a.  Fee, Buy-in, Re-buys, etc...
		b.  Timing
		c.  Table depletion
	2.  Strategy
		a.  Chip management
		b.  Opponent Elimination
		c.  Table negotioations
  C.  Other Variations (optional)
	1.  5-card stud
	2.  Popular home games (and why they require less skill):
		a.  Baseball
		b.  Follow the Queen
		c.  Spit in the Ocean
		d.  Annaconda
		e.  Criss-cross
	3.  Dealing with wildcards
VI.  Poker resources:
  A.  Online
  B.  Library