When Confronted with An Explanation that is Based on Mathematics

[Benman]

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I do believe intuition has some value.


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I'm not repelled by mathematics, but I'll ask a counter question. Why is it that mathematically skilled poker players only grudgingly admit the value of intuition and common sense when it comes to poker success. The biggest, most successful poker players in the world are not mathematical geniuses. I read an intereseting article or interview recently with Barry Greenstein, who is a math whiz and a world class player, and he said that math really doesn't hold a candle to people skills in the biggest games. I don't know what Chip Reese has said on the matter, but I doubt he's a math Einstein. Doyle Brunson? Phil Ivey? I'll bet every one of these people makes most of their money off of general poker skill, people skills, hustle, intuation, etc. far more than math. My theory is that math is probably a very interesting field that doesn't appeal to a lot of people. If you do have skills in that area, it's probably a natural tendency to want to overstate it's application to poker because, well, you find it interesting and spend a lot of your time on it.