Furgeson says have to be very intelligent! Is he right?

[redsoxsox]

How do you know any of these peoples intellgence. What can you base this on, what they look like? How they dress? Speak?

[Smoothcall]

No not my imagination. Furguson mentioned DEGREES. Most of the people i mentioned apart from corkins who is a (farmer from what i heard) and ivey(i don't think he went to college as he was playing poker underage in ac and at still a young age won the wsop. so doubtful he found time to graduate college , let alone get a masters) were either dealers or cooks. Flack, Scotty, Mattusow were dealers. Chan was a cook i believe. So thats where i derived that conclusion. But you are so much smarter than me. And you proved it by making a childish insult. I love everyone who insults me in this thread attacks my intelligence. Yet not one makes an intelligent argument. They just make childish boohoo comments. You guys are class through and through. And much smarter than me too.

[illegit]

The assertion that there is any big inherent difference between being consciously mathematic in your decisions and intuitive is faulty.

If for example a player has played 100,000 hands in his life, but never bothered to calculate the odds of hitting a flush draw after flopping 4 to a flush, if he was a good player he'd intuitively have a very good natural feel for what the percentage was because the situation has arisen so many times and he's witnessed the results so many times. THis recall ability is mathematic based even if it's unconscious and requires intelligence.

Second point is that the math (whether consciously or subconsciously applied) is useless without understanding position, stack sizes, player types, etc. for any given hand. Similarly the converse is also true. If you correctly read a player as having Aces before the flop and fold QQ preflop then you have tremendous instincts and a good read. However if you read someone for AA holding QQ before the flop and they raise only 1/30th of their stack (and 1/30th of yours) and you STILL fold then, despite your good instincts you made a bad fold due to misunderstanding the math (in this situation implied odds) of the situation.

[lgas]

I think the problem here is that you are somehow associating degrees with intelligence. I know tons of people with degrees, even masters degrees, that aren't real swift in the head, as well as plenty of very bright people that never went to college or dropped out before ever getting a degree.

Some prominent examples of college dropouts would be Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Michael Dell... all of whom have made themselves billionaires in the high tech field.... an accomplishment that I think most people would agree requires at least a modicum of intelligence.... yet none of them have a degree.

Layne Flack and Phil Ivey definitely think at high levels, even if they did not attend college. In alot of ways going to school can stifle your creativity. Alot of very successful business people, Gates, Dell, decided they did not need schooling and dropped out.
So maybe the really smart ones dont need school.

e.g. Chris Ferguson is intelligent.

[Smoothcall]

I answered this above. That furguson after saying you need to be very intelligent. started to state his schooling backround. Making one to believe that he was referring to book smarts. Most of the people i mentioned had jobs that did not need an edcuation(such as dealers and cooks, or no jobs) which makes on think they did not have higher schooling. Ok?

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
No not my imagination. Furguson mentioned DEGREES. Most of the people i mentioned apart from corkins who is a (farmer from what i heard) and ivey(i don't think he went to college as he was playing poker underage in ac and at still a young age won the wsop. so doubtful he found time to graduate college , let alone get a masters) were either dealers or cooks. Flack, Scotty, Mattusow were dealers. Chan was a cook i believe. So thats where i derived that conclusion. But you are so much smarter than me. And you proved it by making a childish insult. I love everyone who insults me in this thread attacks my intelligence. Yet not one makes an intelligent argument. They just make childish boohoo comments. You guys are class through and through. And much smarter than me too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats not what you claimed. You claimed they wouldn't be considered intelligent people. You didn't claim that these players didn't have advanced academic degrees. In fact the words degree or education isn't mentioned in your initial post.

Muddled thinking leads to muddled posts. Can you now see why you aren't suited to make claims about anyones intelligence?

[ThaHero]

How did any of these players make your list?

Obviously you dont need a high school, college, or post grad degree to be successful. Is that your question? Is that what Ferguson said?

Intelligence is not measured by degrees. Just because Scotty Nguyen, Ivey, etc. dropped out of school to play cards, does that mean they were incapable of passing? No.

Ivey being placed on your list really surprises me. He is always well spoken and articulate, and is one of the most dominant players right now. He is in position to become the greatest ever. What mkes you think he isnt intelligent?

[Smoothcall]

Again i picked these guys because they are guys that had jobs before playing poker that did not require an edcuation. Furguson said you have to be very intelligent to be atop the poker world. He then went on to name his degrees. I believe that all the degrees in the world will not make up for instincts and fearlessness. And yes these guys can be very intelligent. But i don't think they have to be. they need those 2 qualities. great instincts and the fearlessness to act on them. I think you can have low intelligence and still dominate in poker. Great intelligence could help but not required. Especially in the poker tournament world for instance. I believe there are alot of people who are not that intelligent that have alot of success. In tounramnet if you have good instincts, fearlessness, and a good strategy someone shows you. That you can have alot of success.