Game theories: is the head vs heart distinction real?

When you play a game – cards, backgammon, chess – should you listen to your head or your heart? Do you sit there coldly calculating the odds, or do you go with a hunch, gut instinct, your sixth sense? It’s a question I’m discussing with Marcus du Sautoy as we sit in the Beaumont Hotel in Mayfair, enjoying one of their regular games evenings.

Marcus laughs when I mention the head or heart choice. ‘Head, of course! I’m a mathematician.’ His latest book, Around the World in 80 Games (which I reviewed for the magazine) examines the games he’s encountered on his travels. It is full of stuff about their histories, how the games relate to local cultures, and indeed philosophical enquiries into why we play games at all. But of course, given his job, Marcus is never very far from crunching the stats, working out ways that maths can give him an advantage.