Talent Is Overrated

The title of this column, along with virtually every good idea in it, is a blatant lift from Geoff Colvin’s brilliant book, Talent is Overrated, and if I give it a little unsolicited free publicity in exchange for a blatant lift or two (or ten), I figure that’s a win-win for all, yes?

Yes. Please say yes. Otherwise, I’m back to square one. Yes, then? Thank you.

So Colvin says that the difference between geniuses and the rest of us is not a matter of genes or special attributes or any other quality of talent that we frequently refer to as “God-given gifts.” While it’s true that, when it comes to poker (or anything), some of us are just naturally better than others, most people don’t have a clear understanding of what “better” means.

One thing that so-called “talented” people do better than the rest of us is make terrific mental models. When they’re in a situation (a poker situation, say), these mental models allow them to understand the situation and act upon it in fundamentally superior ways.

According to Colvin, “A mental model forms the framework on which you hang your growing knowledge of your domain.” It’s easy to see how an experienced poker player would have a much different – much fuller and more complete – mental model of the game than would a beginner. But if two players have equal experience in the game, why is one so much better? It’s because his/her mental model never stops growing. Most poker players flatten out their learning curve. They simply stop putting in hours of study once they’ve (in the fervid world of their imagination) “got the game licked.” The best players never imagine that they’ve solved the puzzle of poker. They study and study and study, and, in so doing, they grow knowledge of their domain. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you’re not constantly growing knowledge of your domain – expanding your mental model of the game – you must necessarily get crushed by those who do. On the other hand, if you just put some time and energy into growing your domain, you will probably crush. Why? Because almost nobody bothers to learn and stick with their learning once they think they’ve mastered the game.

Fools. There’s no mastering poker. There’s just staying ahead of the curve.

A mental model helps you distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information. Something you see all the time in inattentive poker players is, um, inattention. Between hands, their minds wander to their telephone or the TV or the bodacious cocktail server. They invest no time in examining events right in front of their faces. So, when it comes time to sort relevant information from irrelevant information, they have no mental map – or only a thin one – to draw from. Attentive players, on the other hand (in no way superior to you or me except in their level of attentiveness), have already made useful mental models to help them sort information. They’ve been watching the player in seat three. They know how drunk she is, or how on tilt she is. If that’s not relevant information, I don’t know what is. On the other hand, they’ve also seen seat three fidget in certain ways with both made hands and bluffs; information about that player’s physical tells can thus be relegated to the “don’t need to weigh it” file. No wonder top players do better than the rest of us. Their mental models are more effective and efficient than ours, simply because they pay attention.

Again, I want to stress, these other players are not gods or superheroes. They have the same tools at their disposal as everyone else. The difference? They use theirs. Tell me honestly—how much do you use yours?

A mental model enables you to project what happens next. Certain poker writers (certainly this one here) have described the utility of having, “a plan for the hand.” When you know in advance what you’ll do on every street, on any card fall, with any betting response from your foes, then you have a really solid plan for the hand. It’s your mental model that lets you shape this plan. Your mental model of events at the poker table, informed by your ongoing self-education and supported by your great attentiveness, doesn’t just tell you how to play the hand – it actually paints a picture of what will happen next.

Every poker player knows what it’s like to be “in the zone.” Well, what’s really happening when you’re in the zone is that your mental model is giving you such a clear sense of what’s happening now that what happens next becomes kind of self-evident.
And how do you get such an awesome mental model? Colvin says, “You practice.” Which, as you can imagine, most poker players don’t do right. According to Colvin, they don’t even come close.

Most poker players practice poker by playing poker. Let’s give them credit for being super-attentive at the table. Yay, them. But what about when they’re done? Do they reflect on the plays they’ve made? Do they reconsider key decisions they made? Do they focus on particular aspects of their play and seek targeted ways to improve? If they don’t do these things, it really doesn’t matter how well they play in the moment – they’re still fish.

Practice – real practice – involves thinking about your game before you play, while you play, and after you play. Practice before play involves using simulations, books, magazines, software, coaches, and peers to deepen your understanding of specific poker plays you might make and might want to improve. Practice during play means focusing selectively on elements of your game – taking special note, for example, of when, how, and under what circumstances you defend your blinds. Practice after play involves taking hard looks at specific decisions (not outcomes – heavens!) and seeing if those decisions made sense.

So there it is, campers: If you want to be great, have a great mental model. If you want to have a great mental model, improve your practice. If you want to improve your practice, attend to your poker performance before, during, and after your play. That’s poker success in a nutshell. It doesn’t get simpler than that.

And if you want to ignore all this good advice and just slide by on your natural talent, remember what Geoff Colvin says: “Talent is overrated.”
Practice, on the other hand, is not. ♠

John Vorhaus is author of the Killer Poker series and co-author of Decide to Play Great Poker, plus many mystery novels including World Series of Murder, available exclusively on Kindle. He tweets for no apparent reason @TrueFactBarFact and secretly controls the world from johnvorhaus.com.