[Mister Z]

This concept reminds me a lot of playing music. In practice and in theory you can sit around and analyze why this phrase works over these chords and how these concepts relate and so on. But when you sit down with other musicians or get up on stage all that [censored] has to go out the window. You really do have to forget all that theory and just play and interact and keep your eyes and ears open. If you're up there on stage thinking about what scale you should be playing in over this type of chord and the theory behind what you're doing... you're really screwed. Now, poker is not music, but there are a lot of parallels. Who here hasn't made a decision based on a line or concept you might have been reading about recently only to find out that you were ignoring some pretty important factors? Playing poker is really improvisational and largely abstract - too much analytical thinking can get in the way.

That being said, all that time you spend AWAY from the poker table (or away from your instrument) is so that some of the theory behind the theory can creep into the parts of your brain that make those instant decisions.