Good day to all!

Well it has been a struggle to find a SUJA topic from day one since I'm no that kind of Science student whereby I can get myself interested into typical science topics relating to fields of Chemistry, Physics or Life Sciences. All the jargons and concepts would have simply put me off.

Therefore, in order for me to write some 3000 word essay on a topic I believed that it was necessary for me to get a topic which is related to me or everyday life. I deduced that the only option I had would be to go into the Popular Science Genre.

The first thing that came to mind was Gambling, while I was on a game of Texas Holdem on Facebook :). It is common believe that in a game of Poker, what matters would be 'Poker Skill - deception and etc' and lastly your luck! However recently, the scene was disrupted by a group of unorthodox players; players whom rely on Mathematics. According to 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 'these guys are changing everything'. Indeed, this 'attack of the Math Brats' is causing a phenomenon, and with online Poker on the rise, it leads me to thinking whether Mathematics can really make all of us a winner? Discussing about Poker alone would not be enough I suppose, so I have decided to delve in Gaming(casino) and bookmaking as a whole.

However, the ability to problematise is a headache. Everything in Math is true if and only if its an ideal world. Sadly, the real world is not an ideal world. When we say there is a 3/1 chance of you winning it may imply that you have a 1 in 3 chance to win. So for every 3 bets I place I would win one. Is this always true in real life? There are many variables that we have to factor in including skills and luck. Nothing in this world is perfect.

Further in bookmaking, I understand that the bookmakers have a set of formulas to give them the edge over the punters. For example, in a bet with only 2 options, the odds given might be 9/10 per bet, giving them a 10% edge. Ideally this means for every $1000 of stake the bookmaker would win $100! Good deal eh? But in Bookmaking, it gets even more complicated as its not simple odds in our way, but also the player's skill levels, or even weather and pitch conditions! It makes it very interesting for us if we could understand the logic behind all these. We have to note though that information in this field is most of the time very sensitive and might be a chore to gather them.

A general topic for this would be, "Gaming and Bookmaking - Mathematics or luck?". But I would need inputs to see if this is viable.

Cheerios

Eugene