F Paulsson
euro love
Silver Level
There's a Swedish saying that directly translates to "repetition is the mother of learning." Or to quote Dan Dennett, "Every time you read it or hear it, you make another copy in your brain."
"Every time you read it or hear it, you make another copy in your brain."
("Every time you read it or hear it, you make another copy in your brain.")
So here's a trick to learning new stuff at poker: Focus on one thing at a time. Decide, before the session, what you'll be working on, and then let most of the other decisions ride on autopilot but take your time on the stuff you're trying to get better at.
Let's say, for instance, that you want to work on good spots to float the flop with weak hands. Before you start your session, you make some notes (mental or actual) about what matters when you make a decision to float or not to float. Position, board, opponent, pot size, etc. Whenever an opportunity arises to float the flop at all, carefully go through and assess all the points on your list before making your decision. After the decision is made and even after the hand itself is over, think through variations of that situation - let's say you decided that your hand was too weak to float. What would have been your break-off point? Or maybe you thought your opponent had too tight of a betting range to call him. How wide would his range have to be on that board with your holding for you to call? Etc. Think during the hand, but also after the hand and ignore most of the rest of the things happening on other tables; fold marginal hands, play on autopilot, whatever. Just focus on what you're here to learn. (Bonus tip: If your brain has a hard time keeping the previous train of thought going because there are new decisions to be made, fool it: talk out loud. "but what if my ace had been of hearts?" Brains are hard-wired to react to talking and you can easily trick yourself into thinking what you're supposed to be thinking about by "broadcasting" a question to yourself.)
The idea is that after sufficient number of situations (which, depending on how tricky the concept is, can vary) you'll internalize it. You gain lots by varying the situation you just played in your head; it's like increasing the number of trials you play by 100%. After awhile you'll know, almost instinctively, when you should be floating and when you shouldn't. By then, you move on to the next concept that you want to get better at. What you're doing, effectively, is improving your autopilot. Every time you own a new concept, the next one will be easier to learn because you'll have one more situation where you don't have to think through your decision consciously.
Now consider the opposite approach: Trying to apply a bunch of different concepts that you don't really own yet all in one session. What you'll get is confusion, which can lead to frustration, which very often will lead to tilt. And you won't actually come away having internalized anything at all; you'll probably get a little bit better at each of the things you're trying to learn but it's an inefficient way of learning.
"Trying to play well" is important. But it's not a great way to learn new things; it's in fact a very inefficient way to learn. Dusty Schmidt touches on this in his book and compares it to a golfer who tries to "implement eight swing thoughts his next time on the course" and I think it's an apt analogy. Mastering one play means upgrading your autopilot, which will make the next learning experience, if not faster, then at least more profitable.
"Every time you read it or hear it, you make another copy in your brain."
("Every time you read it or hear it, you make another copy in your brain.")
So here's a trick to learning new stuff at poker: Focus on one thing at a time. Decide, before the session, what you'll be working on, and then let most of the other decisions ride on autopilot but take your time on the stuff you're trying to get better at.
Let's say, for instance, that you want to work on good spots to float the flop with weak hands. Before you start your session, you make some notes (mental or actual) about what matters when you make a decision to float or not to float. Position, board, opponent, pot size, etc. Whenever an opportunity arises to float the flop at all, carefully go through and assess all the points on your list before making your decision. After the decision is made and even after the hand itself is over, think through variations of that situation - let's say you decided that your hand was too weak to float. What would have been your break-off point? Or maybe you thought your opponent had too tight of a betting range to call him. How wide would his range have to be on that board with your holding for you to call? Etc. Think during the hand, but also after the hand and ignore most of the rest of the things happening on other tables; fold marginal hands, play on autopilot, whatever. Just focus on what you're here to learn. (Bonus tip: If your brain has a hard time keeping the previous train of thought going because there are new decisions to be made, fool it: talk out loud. "but what if my ace had been of hearts?" Brains are hard-wired to react to talking and you can easily trick yourself into thinking what you're supposed to be thinking about by "broadcasting" a question to yourself.)
The idea is that after sufficient number of situations (which, depending on how tricky the concept is, can vary) you'll internalize it. You gain lots by varying the situation you just played in your head; it's like increasing the number of trials you play by 100%. After awhile you'll know, almost instinctively, when you should be floating and when you shouldn't. By then, you move on to the next concept that you want to get better at. What you're doing, effectively, is improving your autopilot. Every time you own a new concept, the next one will be easier to learn because you'll have one more situation where you don't have to think through your decision consciously.
Now consider the opposite approach: Trying to apply a bunch of different concepts that you don't really own yet all in one session. What you'll get is confusion, which can lead to frustration, which very often will lead to tilt. And you won't actually come away having internalized anything at all; you'll probably get a little bit better at each of the things you're trying to learn but it's an inefficient way of learning.
"Trying to play well" is important. But it's not a great way to learn new things; it's in fact a very inefficient way to learn. Dusty Schmidt touches on this in his book and compares it to a golfer who tries to "implement eight swing thoughts his next time on the course" and I think it's an apt analogy. Mastering one play means upgrading your autopilot, which will make the next learning experience, if not faster, then at least more profitable.