Today we will discuss a famous problem known as the St. Petersburg Paradox. The problem was originally presented by Daniel Bernoulli in 1738 in the Commentaries of the Imperial Academy of Science of Saint Petersburg (hence the name). The problem demonstrates that certain games may have extremely high payoff/utility yet the variance of outcomes can be such that no sensible person would participate (despite extremely high expectation).
One of the trickiest parts about improving as a Poker player is finding high quality learning resources. There are numerous successful players over the years who have written books on their approaches to the game, yet Poker evolves so quickly that these books are often outdated within a few years.
In this article I will lay out the foundational knowledge required to begin learning modern GTO (Game Theory Optimal) poker. At this point, the GTO vs Exploitative debate has essentially been settled and most reasonable people have acknowledged that if you want to be a profitable poker player you need to have a solid understanding of theory. Any exploitation should generally occur as a deliberate deviation from what you understand to be a theoretically correct play. But, if you do not have a foundational understanding of what theoretically correct play even is, your exploitative plays will be based on accurate hunches (at best) and complete delusion (at worst).
