[jamby]

I've just begun reading Your Worst Poker Enemy by Dr. Alan Schoonmaker. It's not at all a traditional poker book in that it's emphasis is on self-examination and helping the reader to discover and address psychological issues and patterns that might be adversely impacting your poker game. In addition, it addresses self-discovery of one's strengths too in order to better develop our own natural inclinations.

One of the early topics is on intuition vs. logic as general player styles. Schoonmaker uses Doyle Brunson, Layne Flack and Stuey Ungar as examples of players that are almost 100% intuitive. He counters that with the mostly logical players such as Chris Ferguson, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. Schoonmaker contends that few of us are gifted with extreme intuition and so must develop it by practice and applying logic over and over again to poker so that our responses become somewhat intuitive. He says that most though think they're not only better players, but more intuitive than we really are. He also says that folks who are super-intuitive refuse to read poker books because they don't want to be influenced by how others think the game should be played - Flack is an example of such a player. That's a super-general description of this section of the book and I'm not finished yet so I'm sure there's more to learn about it.

I'm curious though where our membership falls on the logic <-> intuition continuum. Also, has anybody else read this book? What did you think of it? Please discuss.

[jamby]

Might be interesting to list other pro players and our view of where they sit on the continuum as well.

Jennifer Harman comes to mind as she's often discussed her reliance on 'feel' during the game vs. math. I'd say she's either all or at least mostly intuitive.

Others?

[whataboutj]

Sounds like an interesting book. If I ever can finish HOHII I may try to read it

As for me - I am more on the side of intuition. I know/use the math just enough to determine if something is way out of line. Other than that I try not to dwell on the math too much and use intuition to guide my decisions. It may be why I hit platues often though.
J

[7thSeat]

Cool poll

I voted in the middle but if it was online I would go for close to 100% logical.

[Poboy]

IMO, logic is a part of intuition.

[jamby]

How so?

Originally Posted by Poboy

IMO, logic is a part of intuition.

[7thSeat]

I think intuition is more of memory then logic. The patterns in the memory can be logical though

[jamby]

I think that intuition is sensing that something is true without using any rational process to arrive at that conclusion. Logic on the other hand relies on if-then reasoning that can be proven with facts (math) and is repeatable.

Originally Posted by 7thSeat

I think intuition is more of memory then logic. The patterns in the memory can be logical though

[7thSeat]

Originally Posted by jamby

I think that intuition is sensing that something is true without using any rational process to arrive at that conclusion. Logic on the other hand relies on if-then reasoning that can be proven with facts (math) and is repeatable.

That sence is probably based on your lifes experiences (memory). Not everybody know how to use that experience though.

I guess "destinctive mark" better describes what I mean.

[links_slayer]

If I wasn't my own worst poker enemy I'd have an easier time answering the poll.