Michael Lewis Liar's Poker opens with the description of a famous wager made on a Wall Street trading floor in 1987. The CEO of the (soon to be bankrupt Salomon Brothers approached his star trader with an outlandish challege, 'One hand, one million dollars, no tears'. The 'hand' or game he was referring to was 'liar's poker (aka 'cheat' or 'spoof'in the UK). It involved no playing cards but a combination of statistical calculation and bluffing (convincing your opponent of a falsehood). Players hold random dollar bills with close attention to their own bill serial number. The objective of the game is to bluff the opponents into believing that your bid does not exceed the combined sum of all of the serial numbers... The game requires great mathematical skill because the probability calculations are extremely complex. But even more essentials is a 'poker face', the ability to lie convincingly. if one player bids three 4s, he
