How a New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker contributor parlayed a strong grasp of the science of human decision-making and a woeful ignorance of cards into a life-changing run as a professional poker player, under the wing of a legend of the game Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel - Poker Hall of Fame inductee, winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings - and asked him to be her mentor. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance in her life had pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish what can be controlled and what can't. Seidel was in, and soon Konnikova was down the rabbit hole with him, a journey that would lead her to the following year's World Series of Poker. Then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova began to have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read not just her opponents but far more importantly herself. She found her way to making better decisions and to a place where she could accept luck for what it is, and what it isn't. But she also began to win. She even learned to like Las Vegas. In the end, Konnikova is a student of human behaviour, and ultimately the point of her incredible adventure was to render it into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned is that skill is enough. This is a book that will focus your mind and strengthen your hand.

In Play Poker Like the Pros, poker master Phil Hellmuth, Jr., demonstrates exactly how to play and win -- even if you have never picked up a deck of cards -- the modern games of poker, including: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud, and Razz.

Phil Hellmuth, Jr., a seven-time World Champion of Poker, presents his tournament-tested strategies to beat any type of player, including:

• The Jackal (crazy and unpredictable)
• The Elephant (plays too many hands)
• The Mouse (plays very conservatively)
• The Lion (skilled and tough to beat)

Play Poker Like the Pros begins by laying out the rules and set-up of each game and then moves on to easy-to-follow basic and advanced strategies. Hellmuth teaches exactly which hands to play, when to bluff, when to raise, and when to fold. In addition Hellmuth provides techniques for reading other players and staying cool under pressure. There are also special chapters on how to beat online poker games and an inside look at tournament play.

A technological milestone is not just a triumph, but a rare, pivotal watershed: Orville Wright's first flight, NASA's landing on the moon¿the victory of a digital computer, Deep Blue, over world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. "Deep Blue: An Artificial Intelligence Milestone" details the historic endeavor to develop a chess-playing computer that would outplay the best human player on Earth. The story tells of the super-talented team of scientists and engineers involved, how one of America's mightiest corporations nurtured that team, and how the team's hard work produced a machine that played epic battles against human beings before eventually proving victorious. Deep Blue's success raises many questions about our future relationship with the digital computer. Topics and features: * Offers a comprehensive record of Deep Blue's Development * Gives the reader insight into the ups and downs of the deep Blue team on its way to finally defeating Gary Kasparov * Includes appendices that completely record Deep Blue's matches * Provides many photographs of the participants involved in the journey * Analyzes Deep Blue's evolution from "hostile force" to "champion" in popular cartoons appearing in newspapers. The work provides a comprehensive and authoritative account of the creation, development, and actions of IBM's Deep Blue technology group and how their computer defeated the world chess champion. Specialists and nonspecialists in AI and computing will discover a fascinating story of one of the major technological milestones in the history of computer science, as well as science in general.

The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation (FIDE, from the French acronym for Federation Internationale des Echecs) was founded on July 20, 1924 in Paris but only from 1950 began to award the first international titles. This work lists over 18,000 players who received international titles from 1950 up until December 2016. Information for each entry includes when available last name, first name, middle name, federation, date of birth, place of birth, date of death, place of death, title and year of award and, peak rating (month and year). A list of sources is included.

Fans of J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World will be enchanted by this life-size collectible--a poseable figure of Pickett, Newt Scamander's Bowtruckle companion in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Kit includes:

* 5" bendable figure of Pickett

* ID card" with description of the Bowtruckle

* 2 magnets

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes fans to a new era in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, decades before Harry Potter and half a world away. Inspired by the Hogwarts textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by J.K. Rowling's character, Newt Scamander, the film follows a magical mix-up that takes Newt on a chase around New York City looking for the magical creatures that have escaped from his case.

Thirty-six masterpieces are up for auction. Are they bargains to be snapped up or over-hyped drains on your finances? You'll never know unless you bid! In this board game for up to six players, you travel the world as an art collector scouring the auction houses, visiting art fairs, and making private deals in search of elusive artworks to complete your collection. The winner is the player with the most valuable collection and the most cash in hand at the end of the game.

Playing cards that feature beautiful hummingbird photography This gorgeous deck of playing cards, put together by award-winning nature photographer Stan Tekiela, features 54 striking photographs of North America's hummingbirds, including the Ruby-throated, Black-chinned and Rufous hummingbirds. Anyone who appreciates birds will love having these cards for playing their favorite games.

This book is the definitive volume on the history of chess in Singapore. Covering 1945-1990, it covers the post-war emergence of a truly 'local' chess scene out of the colonial period, then taking the story up to the modern era. Contained within these pages are tributes to the modern founding fathers of Singapore chess. Also chronicled within are the careers of Singapore's top players and their achievements. This includes fine team performances (belying Singapore's seeming status in the chess world as a tiny red dot) and spectacular individual successes on the international stage.In documenting chess development in Singapore for the period in question, this book also provides glimpses of a wider social history. Personal stories (based on fresh interviews) are provided that give a sense of the chessplaying milieu of the time. Stalwarts in the chess scene, featured in this book, went on to be notable figures in the wider social and political landscape.A selection of 139 annotated games played by top Singapore-based players and Singapore masters between 1949 and 1990 is matched by a rich collection of more than 200 rare illustrations. This volume is a wonderful resource for chess aficionados, interested amateurs, collectors and historians.

Is it morally permissible to plunder a drunken player's riches at the poker table? Is it morally permissible for casinos to provide free alcoholic beverages to patrons while they gamble? The Ethics of Poker is the first text of its kind, asking and answering the ethical questions above, and many others related to playing poker for real money. The Ethics of Poker is of immediate interest to poker players wishing to do the right thing morally and anyone interested in philosophy and applied ethics. But more importantly, the moral lessons learned from a study of the ethics of poker provide moral direction for our daily lives, since there are definite moral rights and wrongs, even within poker.

The Scandinavian Defence is one of the most popular chess openings among amateur players, and it is easy to see why. Black players immediately limit the opening theory they have to know because there is no way White can side-step Blacks first move. Whats more, the Scandinavian requires only very little theoretical knowledge, so it has an extremely low maintenance factor. To cap it all, Black gets a solid structure. And thats not even the end of the good news, as Thomas Willemze demonstrates in this compact and practical manual. Playing the Scandinavian teaches invaluable techniques that you can use in almost all of your other games. Pressuring the centre, neutralizing your opponents initiative, improving your piece coordination, trading the right pieces and exploiting your opponents weak points are all typical Scandinavian spin-offs that Thomas Willemze teaches you in his trademark lucid style. The Scandinavian for Club Players offers everything you need to know to be fully prepared to meet 1.e4. The various lines are enriched with verbal explanations, diagrams, flash-cards and exercises that make this book even more accessible. Willemze not just uses examples from the games of elite grandmasters. As an experienced trainer he knows that discussing club players adventures are particularly instructive for his target group.

The Superteam Handbook puts the focus on the heroes and their team, with details for players and gamemasters alike to make their team cohesive, dramatic, and fun! Heroes can work closer together than ever before with new, team-focused powers, advantages, and attack options. Eight pre-made hero teams-ranging from PL 5 to PL 12-serve as campaign-kickstarters, with guidelines, resources, and advice for running a variety of heroic campaigns, along with background and statblocks for their members to use as player characters, rivals, or villains. Will you save the planet as part of the globe-hopping UNIQUE, battle to keep the streets safe as one of the street-brawling Ferroburg Four, or take on ancient aliens from the cockpit of your own giant robot as a member of MagnaForce? Whatever you choose, be stronger than the sum of yourparts!

Galison's Paper Dogs Playing Card Set features 50 Reed Evins Paper Dog portraits plus 2 cats for the joker cards! Galison playing card sets are packaged in a sturdy drawer style keepsake box perfect for gifting and easy storage. * Includes 2 decks of cards * Drawer Box Size: 5.75 x 4.25 x 1.25", 150 x 110 x 30 mm

Drawing on an eclectic range of primary and secondary sources Chaplin examines the development of darts in the context of English society in the early twentieth century.

He reveals how darts was transformed during the interwar years to become one of the most popular recreations in England, not just amongst working class men and, to a lesser extent, working class women but even (to some extent) among the middle and upper classes. This book assesses the social, economic and cultural forces behind this transformation. This work also considers the growth of the darts manufacturing industry and assesses the overall effect the growing popularity of darts had on interwar society and popular culture, with particular reference to the changing culture and form of the English public house.

This original study will be of interest to sports historians, social historians, business historians, sociologists and sports scientists.

Match the upper sides and undersides of the wings of 25 species of butterfly from around the world in this beautifully illustrated matching game. With all kinds of stunning species - from the painted lady to the purple emperor - this fun and educational game is an ideal gift that will appeal to nature lovers everywhere. Includes a mini dossier on each species. Can also be used as a memory game when you get to know the butterflies. Collect more pairs than your opponent to win!

Originally published in 1899, this is a comprehensive guide to the many intricacies to the game of Solo Whist. It is a complex game with many laws and tricks, with this guide intending to guard against some of the common mistakes made by players new to the game. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: General Review of the Principles of the Game - The Calls - The Laws of Solo Whist - Propositions and Acceptances - The Solo - The Misere: When to Declare - The Abondance: How to Play it - The Open Misere - The Abondance Declaree - Illustrative Hands: The Play

For 70 years the U.S. Chess Federation has held the U.S. Junior Open, featuring young players under 21. This book is the first to focus the formative years of these juniors, who later became many of the outstanding masters of the Unites States. Each chapter contains an annotated game of the winner of the championship and brief identifications of the notable players. Crosstables are included where available.

This is the perfect book for fans of Journal 29, and those who want to re-create an exciting escape-room experience in their own home! You are Adam Parkinson, an intrepid journalist who has recently been employed by the time-travelling Wexell Corporation. Adam is invited to an unusual art gallery, filled with objects and artworks donated by a mysterious figure. It will be up to you to help Adam unravel the mysteries of the Gallery, and you will travel from Ancient Egypt to Victorian England - and beyond - to do it. And, quite possibly, to save the world! Escape from the Gallery is an immersive escape-room experience that provides a visual feast as well as a tricky puzzle adventure. Featuring artworks ranging from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to Mexican masterpieces, you will need to solve visual riddles and discover the hidden secrets that lie within the artworks if you want to figure out what is going on, and why this might be the most important visit to a gallery you have ever made.

In this unique deduction game of honest misdirection you are all cryptozoologists, trying to be the first to discover definitive proof of a cryptid in the wilds of North America. Each player will be given a unique clue – one piece of crucial information about where the creature lives. When combined, the clues identify a single space on the map – the creature’s habitat.

Each player’s clue either states an area where the creature can be found or where it cannot be found, based on the terrain and structures on the board. During the game, you will ask each other questions with the aim of guessing each other’s clues. The first player to correctly use all of the clues to find the habitat wins the game!

The standard 52-playing card deck is a staple of game night - but what if it could be so much more!? Introducing the HECKADECK, a 160-card deck that not only includes the classic cards, but adds all-new ranks, suits, face cards, and other creative elements that open a whole range of exciting new play possibilities. Heck yeah the deck includes hearts through diamonds and Aces through Kings, but also acorns, clouds, and planets, zeroes and elevens, Beasts, Hunters and Travelers, arrows, an all-suited Watcher, and other delightfully illustrated new cards. The booklet inside offers twists on classic games (Crazier Eights, Hearts [and Clouds], Go Fish with Dynamite), plus rules for new games (Epic Match, Beast Hunt, Planetary Rule), guidance for inventing your own games, and even predicting the future with this unique family-friendly, heckafun card deck.

If you are aware of endgame patterns, you spot key moves quicker, analyse and calculate better, avoid making errors and memorise what you have studied more fully. Most of the patterns Jesus de la Villa presents in this new book are from the phase of the game just before a theoretical endgame turns up. Knowing these practical endgame fundamentals will enable you to fully reap the benefits of what you learned in De la Villas widely acclaimed classic 100 ENDGAMES YOU MUST KNOW. Studying patterns only makes sense if you are going to encounter them frequently. De la Villa presents those that have the greatest practical importance and explains and illustrates them with carefully selected examples. To show the patterns as clearly as possible, he mainly concentrates on positions in which both sides have just one piece. Presenting positions with more pieces risks blurring the picture and making motifs less straightforward. The fact that players think in patterns has an important side-effect: their endgame errors tend to repeat themselves. Thats why De la Villa has not just included examples from games of elite GMs but also of amateurs. Errors are always instructive and working with this book will seriously reduce the number of typical mistakes you are prone to make. The many practical exercises that De la Villa has selected will help you improve and retain what you have learned.