Poker to Politics<\/strong><\/h2>\nSilver has built a media empire on his aptitude for statistics, so it\u2019s little wonder he can cut it at the poker table.<\/p>\n
In fact, before he became a big deal in political polling, he briefly earned a living playing online poker in the early 2000s. He was even featured in a 2004 Chicago Tribune <\/em>article examining the new phenomenon of online poker players.<\/p>\nStill, the Michigan native had his work cut out over the weekend at a WSOP final table that included top pros like Jason Somerville, John Racener, and Terence Chan.<\/strong><\/p>\nAround the time Silver was grinding online poker tables almost 20 years ago, he also was developing PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm). This was a statistical system, beloved of fantasy baseball players, that forecast the future performance of baseball hitters and pitchers.<\/p>\n
Next, he turned his attention to the political arena. Writing under the pseudonym \u201cPoblano,\u201d he launched the FiveThirtyEight blog. Silver was frustrated by the limitations of conventional analysts and sought to shed new light on politics by analyzing its quantitative aspects for a wider audience.<\/p>\n
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In 2008, Silver predicted 49 outcomes of 50 states in the US presidential election. In 2012, he predicted all 50.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nNailing the 2008 election changed his life. After that came the book deals and TV appearances, and in 2009, he was named one of the World\u2019s Most Influential People by Time Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\nSilence and the Noise<\/strong><\/h2>\nHis first book, 2012\u2019s The Silence and the Noise \u2013 Why So Many Predictions Fail but Some Don\u2019t<\/em> was a New York Times<\/em> best-seller. It examined how data and probability are used \u2013 and misused \u2013 in everything from forecasting climate change to an economic downturn.<\/p>\nThe Silence and the Noise<\/em> also devoted a chapter to poker, and it appears that Silver is revisiting the game in a new book he’s writing which deals with the mindset of a successful gambler.<\/p>\nSilver told Card Player<\/em> on Sunday his experiences at the WSOP have proven to be valuable (and lucrative) research.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve met people like Jason Somerville, who I talked to in my book, and now I\u2019ve played a bunch of tournaments with him in this last week,” he said. “You get more ingrained in the community if you\u2019re not just an outsider, but actually a participant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political analyst and writer Nate Silver was a whisker away from winning a World Series of Poker bracelet on Sunday night. The statistician has won fame and plaudits for predicting election outcomes. But one outcome he failed to forecast was his opponent John Monnette\u2019s dramatic comeback to clinch the Limit Hold\u2019em Championship. Still, Silver took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":188687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Data King Nate Silver Makes Word Series of Poker Final Table<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n