Phil Ivey say Math not as important!

[SossMan]

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Not sure if anyone wrote about this before but from last week's wsop circuit event. Phil I say math isn't as important as most people think. He says it's more about instincts and reading the players. This is very different than what most of the math guys think. The math guys seem to think the math it critical to success. Yet Phil Ivey(who to some is considered one of the best players in the world including sklansky i believe, if i'm wrong about that let me know. but i thought i have heard him praise Phil I before) says math isn't as important as most think.

So whose right? Phil I. or the math guys that say its all about the math?

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It's not an either or proposition. It's also very much a matter of context. When Phil says 'math' is overrated, he is not likely talking about basic pot odds for a flush draw, stuff like that.

More importantly, given enough information, everything is simply a math problem. However, properly assessing this information on the fly is the 'feel' part of the game. Reading the other players' psyche and mood and actions and tells and behaviours all go into assessing their probability of doing something or having something. Those somethings are then the assumptions that you use to start your math problem. That's really the feel part of poker.