Until now, I have been an ardent admirer of the merits of poker theory and rigorous research. However, I must also stress that I do not believe that theory is all-powerful. Some players, especially those who are mathematicians with mathematical disabilities, look at poker through rose-tinted glasses. They think that poker is just a mathematical construct, a problem with a definite solution. They imagine that if they locked themselves in a room with a calculator for 20 years, they could develop their game to beat the best player in the world.
These players are convinced that poker consists only of strategies. It's as if you have a card that tells you how to become unbeatable. Of course, that is not how poker works. It has to be learnt, and all the information learnt has to permeate to the bone. Your mind has to form the right network of neuro-associations, and that can be achieved after playing hundreds of thousands of hands. You don't need to plan all the strategies or be obsessed with mathematics. I have known many players who were mathematically more capable than me but could not hold their own in 1$/2$ blinds.
Remember a tough poker hand you once played. You may believe there is some way to win this hand and find the "right answer", as if you were a scientist looking at a lab mouse in its maze. You can believe that theory will show you the answer. But why do you believe it? You want to see it from the scientist's point of view. But in reality, you are the mouse in the maze. And you will never be a scientist. You are trapped, and there is no way to escape from it. You don't have access to the perfect theory, and you don't know why your theory is imperfect. And it may be that everything you know will never lead you to the optimal solution. In some part of your mind you may believe that poker is a beautiful, fair, mathematically pristine game. But you are the one who is learning poker, you are the mouse looking for a way out of the maze. Reason will not always save you.
Haseeb Qureshi
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