Charles Murray, best known as author of The Bell Curve, seems to have taken a sudden interest in poker. Today, he sent this message to 20 or 30 prominent poker players. His interest in our community strikes me as strange and I feel obliged to share what I know about him.

Most people who write about poker are journalists with an interest in games, sports, competitions, and gambling. Murray is a political scientist whose career has focused largely on analysis of the relationships between IQ, class, and race in America.

He is a senior fellow at The American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank known for its conservative viewpoint and funding from prominent conservative individuals and institutions. His research conclusions have been reliably consistent with his politics.

For example, one of his most famous views is that:

IQ is highly predictive of socioeconomic outcome

and

Welfare programs encourage poor people to have kids

therefore

Welfare programs function as a sort of selective breeding of low IQ people and thus must be ended.

When someone with his history and affiliations turns up looking to talk to poker players about "GTO Theory" my alarm bells go off. He says he is researching a book on the evolution of high level poker, but it would be surprising if this is not an overtly political project.

I just want to encourage anyone who is considering engaging with him to spend a little time familiarizing themselves with his career and to make an informed decision about it. Otherwise, you may end up surprised at the context where you later find your name and your words.