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

[A_Junglen]

You listed Scotty Nyugen and Johnny Chan.

They, like me are asian, and are therefore far more intelligent than everyone else by default.

[BS Yee]

Why the insults? You took a statement from Chris FERGUSON out of context then sweepingly insulted top pros by saying:

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Players such as Layne Flack, Scotty Ngyuen, PHIL IVEY, Mike mattusow(not sure at top but a threat), Jonny Chan, Hoyt Corkins, and many others are people that wouldn't be considered very intelliigent people.

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Of course, you try and worm your way out of it with the disclaimer:

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At least in the sense that furgeson uses. As he went on to give his degrees and such. I'm not in any way knocking these guys.

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Yeah, right. All these guys are not very intelligent - but I'm not knocking them at all.

Oh, but now you stick up for them

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But to show that they are players that might not necessarily be very intelligent people that dominate the tournament poker world.

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You have constructed a poorly worded, half assed argument. Your post was not interesting and at best it was not well thought out. That's why you're being flamed. On top of that, you've made Ferguson look like some elitist snob by paraphrasing and extracting what was probably a salient point.

Your real argument is "book smart" which, if you had stated in the first place, "Gee, JOHNNY Chan, Hoyt Corkins, et al, don't have college degrees, but they do pretty darn good", then you wouldn't have appeared to make such an asinine post. Plus, I can forgive a typo or two or three but when you start butchering their names, that's another one for ire.

Let's take the definition of intelligence .

in·tel·li·gence ( P ) Pronunciation Key (n-tl-jns)
n.

1 a. The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
b. The faculty of thought and reason.
c. Superior powers of mind. See Synonyms at mind.

2 An intelligent, incorporeal being, especially an angel.

3 Information; news. See Synonyms at news.

4 a. Secret information, especially about an actual or potential enemy.
b. An agency, staff, or office employed in gathering such information.
c. Espionage agents, organizations, and activities considered as a group: “Intelligence is nothing if not an institutionalized black market in perishable commodities” (John le Carré).


I think everyone you've named is intelligent. I would go on to say they are very intelligent. IN POKER. Are these guys going to decode the human genome? Cure cancer? Write the great American novel? Hell, no.

They are great at "The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. The faculty of thought and reason." IN POKER.

Garbled ideas with back handed insults ruin this forum for me.

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I dint insult anyone in my post.

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The next time you're at a cocktail party with "Layne, Scotty, PHIL, Jonny, and Hoyt" be sure to say, "Chris Ferguson says you have to be very intelligent to be at the top of poker but I think you guys prove him wrong. I mean with degrees and such" and see how many teeth you have left.

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I insulted nor offended anyone.

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Gosh, it must be horrible to be right all the time.

Since when are "DEGREES" and being intelligent the same thing?

[ThaHero]

Your argument seems somewhat flawed. It appears you are associating intelligence with degrees, which is wrong.

If you are asking if a degree is required to be atop the poker world, the answer is obviously NO.

As far as insticts go, they are a product of deductive reasoning and critical thinking in my opinion. For someone to have great mental insticts they have to be intelligent. Obviously someone like Terrell Owens who has physical insticts doesn't need to be very intelligent. But to show things like that from a physical standpoint, intelligence is needed. To say a person that is mentally challenged would be able to play poker on a high level just because he has good insticts is false. His slowed process of thinking would severly hinder his ability to put his insticts to use.

People who are less intelligent think slower, learn things slower, and are less observant. With that said, if they had enough time to devote to the game, maybe an "unintelligent" person could compete at a high level consistently. But with game conditions constantly changing, I don't see how so.

[Smoothcall]

Go read it again! Muddled reading makes muddled responses from guys like you that cant read. I clearly stated in a sense the way furguson used the word. You owe an apology but i'm taking educated guess you won't give it.

[Smoothcall]

I think your readin is flawed. because i didn't associate intelligence with degrees. Furguson did.

And to pick a slow person is much different than picking an ordinary joe schmo. I'm saying Phil Ivey can teach joe shmop a certain style and with alittel experience would do well. (Obviously the better his instics and fearlessness will be even better) That you dont have to be very intelligent to play and be atop the poker world. That was the point of the post. Many including you missed that.

[Freudian]

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Go read it again! Muddled reading makes muddled responses from guys like you that cant read. I clearly stated in a sense the way furguson used the word. You owe an apology but i'm taking educated guess you won't give it.

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Ferguson doesn't equate intelligence with education. When he means well educated he says well educated. When he means intelligent he says intelligent. The mixing of the two is your own invention. If Ferguson claimed that you need to have an education to be on top of the poker world, I would like the entire quote.

If you want to argue that a lot of skilled pokerplayers doesn't have academic degrees, feel free. Hardly anything surprising about that. You will find plenty of successful, intelligent business men without any academic degrees alo.

[sweetjazz]

Chris Ferguson, better known as "Jesus," is one of the brainiest players -- he
has a PhD in computer science. His also won the World Series of Poker in 2000.
"An education doesn't make you intelligent," says Ferguson. "You're going to
be intelligent whether you have that education or not. An education just makes
you educated, but one thing all the top poker players have in common
is...they're incredibly intelligent. They're incredibly good at making these
very, very difficult, very close decisions and making them accurately."

Ferguson said, and I quote, "An education doesn't make you intelligent." And yet that is what you thought he meant. Truly, you were born more retahded than Peter Griffin. Unfortuantely, you're infinitely less entertaining as well.

Link

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Stu Ungar anyone???

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Stuey's IQ was 185

Gary

[The Don]

Going to college and getting a degree has NOTHING to do with intelligence. As long as you have a pulse, you can get a degree from an accredited university. Believe me, I know a ton of morons who have.

That being said, beating the best of the best in a game of mental warfare consistently DOES have something to do with intelligence. Why? Because, unlike academia, you can always tell who are the best poker players because they are winning the most in the long run.