There are long debates about whether poker should be considered a sport. If we say that poker is not a sport, we risk thinking of poker as a purely mental game. Such a designation suggests that if you are not constrained by any physical limitations, you can do whatever you want.
This is not entirely true. It is true that unlike traditional sports, poker does not limit you by physical attributes such as height or body composition. However, you are constrained by physical limitations within the mind. If the structures of the mind have not been properly calibrated by many hours at the poker table, then you are not physically capable of playing correctly. Playing correctly means having the right, accurate, complex neural patterns.
From a physiological perspective, there are two different branches of poker knowledge that are decoded in our brains. The first is what we usually think of as knowledge: wisdom based on facts or statements. The second is know-how (procedural wisdom).
Statement-based knowledge is something like: “I should make a 3-bet preflop with KK.” Know-how knowledge is our mind's knowledge of how to act. Unlike statements stored in the mind that need to be recalled, know-how knowledge contains information on how to send signals to neurons responsible for motor skills and muscle fibers, how to calibrate your movements and balance to perform actions. For example, in basketball, making a free throw is a know-how branch. You don't need to know any statements about how to make such a shot, like you need to jump to a certain height or ensure the ball spins in a certain direction. Your body learns these things automatically and recodes them into know-how, never formulating any statements about it.
Playing poker is also a know-how knowledge area. As you learn poker, you become better and better, and the brain builds a neural network to subconsciously coordinate your perception and motor reactions, just like in basketball. This is not so obvious because we never think of poker as a physical game, but learning is exactly that.
If you play basketball, of course, basketball theory can help, but the only way to become a skilled player is to develop your know-how perception, the internal body sensations that come only from constant playing. Although systems can influence each other, basketball theory and practice are very different. The same is true in poker. The system in the mind that contains poker theory is structurally separate from the system that governs your play.
Poker theory is a conscious network that you have in your mind. You should think of it as a computer program that you have built in your neural networks. You have input information about all the variables of hands into the internal poker theory program, so now it takes the information, processes it, and spits out an answer. You train and deepen your knowledge by talking about poker, watching poker videos, reviewing other people's hands, reading poker books, performing poker math simulations, and so on. Feedback from all these sources helps calibrate the poker theory neural network closer to reality.
This program, as we discussed earlier, is slow because it tends to deviate quickly and has to go through many codes, so it is unlikely that you will use this program for all the hands you play. But in serious situations, you will try to extract all the information you have.
On the other hand, when we play poker, we are engaged in something completely different. We are not trying to 
recall statement-based knowledge, facts about poker, or even discursive processes stored in poker theory networks. When playing, we enable know-how knowledge – our subconscious “muscle memory” system, which helps us react immediately, feel what the correct play is, and understand what a bet size indicates. We decide whether a hand is strong enough to call in this situation. This is called intuition. Know-how is what instantly moves our fingers to press the button, fold on the turn, or go all-in. Our poker perception consists of know-how. How we see a J98 flop or a hand like AQ is created by our know-how knowledge base. For example, you immediately perceive a hand like AQ rationally – mathematics, hand charts, poker theory, or consciousness have no influence here. You just have a sense of how strong the hand is, how it works, and how to play it. Of course, you can supplement your perception by trying to mentally run through your poker theory or figuring out how AQ stands against a certain range in PokerStove. But most of the time in poker, you simply function with the perception filtered by know-how knowledge.
As you might expect, know-how knowledge is primarily developed by playing. Just like in other physical activities, swimming, or horse riding. You cannot acquire know-how knowledge by reading books or watching others do it. Poker know-how and subconscious reactions are trained exclusively through experimental feedback – whether it be punishment or reward.
Furthermore, these rewards or punishments can be administered in various ways, sometimes not entirely beneficial. They can come from successful or erroneous play, but they can also come from a coach teaching you to play or from your own inner critic. With each such example, you only move further away from the true poker playing experience. The more you engage your conscious mind, the less you train your know-how.
This is one of the main ideas, so it begs to be repeated: the more the source is removed from the context in which its experience should be used, the less the feedback from it will affect your behavior.
So, as we can see, there are two separate poker systems existing in our mind – the conscious one, connected with our poker theory and statement-based knowledge, and the subconscious system, which contains know-how knowledge and regulates most of our play. These two systems are not only separate but are trained in completely different ways.
