PSU Magazine Spring 2006

~ athematics professor Steven ~ Bleiler isn't the type who would usually buy a Powerball ticket. To him , the size of the prize versus the odds of winning seldom justify spending even a couple of bucks. "lmagine a swimming pool 12 feet across, 30 feet long, and four and a half feet deep. lt's filled with M&Ms, but there's only one green one in the whole lot, and it's the prize," says Bleiler. "Playing Powerball is like blindfolding yourself and plunging into the pool with the hope of retriev– ing the one green M&M. Your odds are 146.1 million to one." So when Bleiler puts money on the line, it's in something that makes mathematical sense: poker. He com– petes in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, and is currently in training for this year's event, which will take place in July and August. For Bleiler, training consists of pedaling his recumbent bicycle, watching his diet, and playing as much poker (a lot of it online) as his off-hours schedule can handle. rle's anticipating nine straight 16-hour days at the poker tables, so he's got to be in shape both mentally and physically A leiler, 56, a popular professor V who won a distinguished teach– ing award in 2003 from the Mathemati– cal Association of America, has been playing poker since high school. He got earnest in the early 1980s as a graduate student at the University of Oregon. "l can remember six mathematicians in the room, and we would have serious mathematical games," he recalls. By mathematical, Bleiler means games in which all parties are thinking and planning based on statistical odds and-his specialty-game theory, an arcane science that finds its way into business, economics, law, and other social sciences. It's the science of strategic decision making. ln other words, Bleiler doesn't play like the rest of us. Five-card draw? Too mechanical and, ultimately, boring. Wild cards? Sorry, they're just not used by serious players. Bleiler's preference is Texas hold 'em. The dealer starts by handing out Pl IOTO BY STEVE DIPAOLA