Pattern Not Found
Tom Leonard
Some time ago I penned a column entitled A Fortune Cookie. In it, I related receiving an epiphany which was enclosed in a fortune cookie that related to getting back to basics in poker.
Well, I still enjoy Chinese food and of course the messages in the fortune cookies are good fodder for columns. A recent one read, “When in doubt, let your instincts guide you.” Not a new, fresh thought by any stretch of the imagination, but one that made me think of a book that has already been referred to in the poker literature. We’ve all heard the ubiquitous advice of going with our first read or trusting our gut instincts.
Many of you may have read the 2005 best-seller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, written by Malcolm Gladwell.
A new book, Gut Feelings, The Intelligence of the Unconcious, by Gerd Gigerenzer, has several parallels. I believe this is because Gladwell drew on Gigerenzer’s research when writing Blink. Mr. Gigerenzer cites many examples that are intended to bolster his central theme that intuition often trumps more considered reason.
The author reviews many examples of how one’s brain is capable of unconsciously making all kinds of tricky mathematical calculations to accomplish goals which are based upon hundreds or even thousands of prior similar events. So what’s up with these books and the whole premise of not really having to think or calculate, but just going with the old gut feeling? If it were only so! Maybe poker players don’t have to actually think or calculate outs, odds, or anything else. Well, maybe some don’t. Huh? I guess if you work hard enough at the game, memorize the odds to the number of outs of every conceivable holding, have tens of thousands of hours of experience against all types of opponents, you might have enough feel for the game to go with your instincts when in doubt. Who writes these fortune cookie scraps of paper anyway?
There is good news and bad news for poker players who think that all they have to do is go with their gut feeling and they will regularly prevail. If it were only so! The good news is that the more experience and knowledge you acquire, the less time you will need to calculate or consider the correct action in a particular situation. No shock there … it stands to reason. The bad news for the lazy slackers that think they can become winning players without the extensive experience, study, understanding, and constant honing of analytical abilities is, in the words of a great sage, “Ain’t gonna happen, Baby!” Our goal for today is to rededicate ourselves to working on our poker knowledge, discipline, and experience, before putting our game on automatic pilot. Even though these books show us how we can think without thinking doesn’t mean we can win without working. If it were only so! Another goal might be to take the time to read both of the books I’ve cited. Your time will be well spent. Just don’t forget you need to stuff a whole lot of knowledge and experience in the old noggin before it becomes as easy as they might have you believe.
See you next “TIME.”
Filed under: Poker News