OT: Psychopaths the best poker players?

I read this article last week--- unsure if any of you read it, but I thought that it was interesting and one could substitute "poker player" for "financial trader" very easily.

Psychopaths could be best financial traders

[lorinda]

This would not surprise me in the slightest, although I suspect their wording is deliberately provocative in the article.

Lori

[good2cu]

Psychopaths could be easily replaced, with "people who don't let their emotions control their actions" or "people who don't go on tilt" or "people who aren't easily fooled by randomness". And these people, do make the best poker players and traders in the long run. This is article is intresting, but misleading.

[bearly]

hi, i believe the academic work would show that the term should be 'sociopath'. there is no question in my mind that the best players i have ever played w/ (live) over a period of time were border-line sociopaths. i'm not working off the top of my head here. i have had many conversations w/ a couple of the doctors who worked on the (probably) definitive work on sociopathy--the dr. ziskin study. prof emer. at usc, and a chief of staff (former, he recently passed away) at cedar-sinai. h

[Rduke55]

[ QUOTE ]
hi, i believe the academic work would show that the term should be 'sociopath'. there is no question in my mind that the best players i have ever played w/ (live) over a period of time were border-line sociopaths. i'm not working off the top of my head here. i have had many conversations w/ a couple of the doctors who worked on the (probably) definitive work on sociopathy--the dr. ziskin study. prof emer. at usc, and a chief of staff (former, he recently passed away) at cedar-sinai. h

[/ QUOTE ]

Why do you think so?
The DSM-IV basically lumps these two together under antisocial personality disorders.
Although typically it's thought that sociopaths are less intelligent than psychopaths which would make it seem like these guys are psychopaths.

[Al Schoonmaker]

I agree generally with your position. The use of the word "psychopath" is irresponsible sensationalism. One could just as easily argue that the research says that people who resemble the "rational man" of classical economic theory make the best traders (and poker players).

In fact, we all know that emotions mess up the decision- making process, at poker, finance,and most other places.

Regards,

Al

[lorinda]

Al,

You may find this thread from the same time interesting, even if it just leads to an insight on online personality tests.

Lori

[Huckle]

I don't really think it's just because they have some sort of mental disorder, I think it's more because they don't think about the value of money. This means that as long as you've played enough poker to do it by routine, or just play well within your bankroll, you should be able to be just as good, or better.

[Degen]

psy·cho·path (sk-pth) n.

A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.


lol

Thats me!

[bearly]

the only way i can answer you is to repeat the answers to the various questions i have asked : sociopaths seem to have less propensity for quick bursts of violent behavior. they can be charming in a way many cases involving psychopathy cannot. the data collected involved thousands of people (mostly men) the vast majority recently released from prison, or on probation. the concensus of the drs. doing the clinical work was that sociopaths were a 'better bet' to carry out the 'work' that they do best w/out being disruptive. since the general word 'con' covers the whole range of 'jobs' they do best, lower and middle stakes poker (live games) would seem to be a good fit. as treating physicians, many of the drs. of the patients, after their series of interviews were over,took them to places like used car lots for the purposes of securing jobs. now the relationship between psychopaths and ultra high-stakes poker was never discussed in my conversations w/ the drs. i new who were among the interviewers. b