Thinking Clearly: Poker Biases
Posted by Sean Lefort
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Nice "different" video. I apreciate sometimes looking poker from a more general human perspective if that makes sense. Keep it going Sean :)
pretty good ... black swan 's taleb book s pretty good too .... Daniel kanehman also
Hey Sean, great vid!
A comment for the 'Swimmer's Body Illusion' section;
For the example of swimming, the genetically gifted people will have a bigger advantage because it is a physical sport (size, shape, structure of body). Because poker is not a physical sport, I truly believe the certain personality types and genetic gifts you are referring do not gain the same amount of advantage, considering it is a mental sport. I do agree it gives a slight advantage but I think many under-estimate the possibility of training their mind to be better than a 'genetically gifted poker mind'.
Basically, modifying a person who is born short to become the best olympic high-jumper in the world is nearly impossible. But taking someone who has the complete opposite traits as a typical poker pro, and turning them into the best in the world... Is (in my opinion) a huge degree more possible.
The only problem is unlocking their mind and understanding how it works, that specifically... might be, nearly impossible.
Again overall - awesome video.
All of Nassim Talebs books are really good reads but I'd recommend starting with "Fooled by randomness". It's the first one, the easiest to read and understand for me and it had the most real life application. If you like his style you can also get "The Bed of Procrustes".
I've read Kahneman's book, covers a lot of the same concepts and was one of the best things I've ever read. I liked the video, but I think this material is better to blog about or something.
... i think you should keep on talking about poker ... you walk on eggs here
+1
I think everybody admire every videos here.
Why ?? Because you guys already paid 100$ at this site ??
These videos shoulda be perfect !! Because I can't stand cognitive dissonance !!!
Such a bullshit...
It`s like on every training site man.I seriously doubt more then 5% of those giving high praises really think trough the concepts themselfs but rather take everything coaches say as a gospel.
That`s why we have, and will have 95% losing poker players.
Great video!, lots of new mindsets discussed that I never heard about before
for me this video is dangerous in fact, you have a perfect exemple of how it can hurt on the post of this guy "stepitup" he says that it doesn t have a clue about the subject, but say that it is a great video ??? you can take this guy into doing almost whatever you want him to do .. no ??? ... sean this subject is not light, bad poker teachers ( pseudo coaches ) as numerous, but they can t really hurt ( well they do but .... ), while this subject without a deep understanding ( which is as in the poker field ... very very rare ... and apparently certainly not the case of mister lefort ) can do a lot of damage ...................... in fact it is a pretty bad thing to publish such videos without some people able to judge the content ............... for the one who wonder if i have any idea about what i am talking about i have a fifteen years of learning the psychoanalytical process ... fifteen years of didactic psychoanalysis ... my english is so so and i apologize for it ... but this video got a good side, it show that we can talk about anything and pose as an expert without even a clue of the subject as i suppose it is the case for many many many pseudo coaches all over the world today, i suppose there is some in thius site too ... no ??? NO ???
I am so sick of these "know it all", post modern quasi philosophers.The quote from his essay : He decided to sign up at his local swimming pool and to train hard twice a week.A short while later, he realized that he had succumbed to an illusion. Professional swimmers don’t have perfect bodies because they train extensively. Rather, they are good swimmers because of their physiques." This is such a joke.
I was a competitive swimmer when i was younger and all swimmers have great physique, because swimming shapes the body.It`s not an illusion, it`s a fact.One of the greatest swimmers of all times, Mark Spitz that had average physique, won seven gold medals and was dominating the sport for years.Try only swimming, stretching and doing regular exercises like push ups, sit ups and abs for 3 months, and you`ll see just how great swimming is for the body.Your whole body will get 10 times stronger then by hitting the gym for 3 months.Adding some running and gym workouts will make you a beast in a year or less.
The guy saying that training hard twice a week for a short period of time made him realize it`s an illusion, is probably one of the dumbest things i have ever heard in my life.What can you get good at, doing it only twice a week?He prolly would not beat 2nl with that work ethic.All athletes, even recreational ones, train at least 3 times a week.And pro`s train 5 times minimum.It goes for poker like for all areas of life, if you don`t dedicate yourself to your craft and work hard, talent will only get you so far.
That line tilted me so hard, there was no way i could watch the rest of the video.
Fair points. However, as much as the swimmer's body illusion may not be the best example, the bias certainly exists in all walks of life. People gravitate towards what they're good at, and thus you have a bias of people at the tops of their professions that are on average more genetically gifted with the tools necessary to succeed. Every 6'8"+ young male was at some point thrown into center in a basketball game. Every genetically gifted male with enhanced muscle-building capabilities enjoyed seeing the benefits when introduced to weight-lifting more than those hard-gainers that started out and struggled.
Of course, there will always be examples that conflict with the trend. However, that doesn't change the fact that a significant bias still exists. And that also shouldn't change your work ethic once you've decided to dedicate yourself to something.
Thanks for the comments guys, both good and bad.
I think it's important to note a few things here.. first of all, Ben Sulsky has been churning out unparalleled NL content over the past few months with groundbreaking material with regards to deep theoretical content. I would be watching every one of his videos multiple times if I were grinding NL as a profession right now. Because of this, I decided it made the most sense to present a couple radically different types of videos with hopes of opening up people's minds about some topics and covering more of the terrain with respect to succeeding as a professional poker player in its entirety.
I don't claim to be a psychoanalytical expert nor did I strive to present myself as one with this video. I simply read a book that fascinatingly presented itself with a lot of parallels to the poker world and I thought it would be great idea for a video with hopes of helping some of you pros open up your minds and thought processes regarding your approach to various topics and concepts. For those of you that are strictly looking for poker theory analysis, I would recommend watching the majority of my videos in the past and skipping this one. I'm sorry if you felt like it wasted your time.
just to be clear ... i wonder why you make a video on a field where you have no competence at all ??? you can be ( and are in fact ) badly misleading ... if you dont understand that ( and it look like you dont ) i suggest that you think again about it ... it is a field where wrong advices can hurt some people badly ... i expect poker advices from you ... but now you give me some reasons to wonder about your level ... i mean ... in reality.
I liked it and don't know if the comments of certain people was to take on 1st or 2 degree .... ur answer to them says it all ... tx for making some of teh best contents on this site
gerard seems to have a pathology ...
"seems" ?
Nice to have videos like these on the site.
I personally enjoyed the video, it was different from your typical HH Review/strategy vid and it addressed a lot of topics/biases that we are quick to neglect when we have good immediate results. Don't be discouraged by some of these negative comments this was great stuff and would actually like to see more videos like this one...
Amazing info, thanks Sean!
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