Re: Answers
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While most excellent poker players are not "really smart", most world class players are.
I didn't say all the best 4000-8000 players had an IQ above 140. I said that their average IQ was. Some may be 130.
I have talked to these players, discussed concepts and quizzed them enough to make a good guess as to what their IQs are.
Someone with an IQ of 120 is much less likely to become world class at bridge, backgammon, and poker than someone with an IQ of 150. In the first two games he is almost drawing dead. In poker he still has a chance, especially in short handed games or pot limit or no limit. But not much of one.
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I was originally planning on using chess, like in the other thread, to argue against your point, but now that I see what you were trying to say, I'd agree.
In another thread, I mention that I've met a lot of chess players who are masters or better, but aren't particularly intelligent. I'm not saying they're idiots, but they certainly aren't geniuses either. Chess success, in general, isn't a product of genius. It's a product of hard work and study. I think poker is very similar.
However, a fair number of people will put in enough work and study in either of these disciplines so that nobody really has an advantage over another studious, hard working player. The world class players seperate themselves from this crowd by a number of means...including intelligence. The average person could probably become an FM (FIDE Master) in chess with enough hard work and study, and many unremarkable people might even beome IMs or GMs (International Masters and Grandmaster, respectively), but it takes a true genius to be a world champion, a 2700+ rated "Super GM" like Anand or Shirov, or a top 100 player and US Champion at the age of 16 like Hikaru Nakamura.
Poker is probably the same way. With enough hard work, discipline and study, along with experience, an average person could probably learn to beat fairly high limit games. But to be successful in the 4,000/8,000 game, it takes more - and a high level of intelligence is likely one of those factors.
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