There are many differences between poker and Minesweeper. One of them is that a poker player is not forced to start playing with a blank table. We have access to maps that other people have already beaten. Articles, videos, books, chatting with poker friends or just looking at hands all give us valuable insights into how other players' minds are set. While we won't be able to emulate them just by watching them (no amount of hours watching Phil Galfond will get you to play like him), it gives us a glimpse of the overall structure and organisation of their game. It helps to understand what a good game map looks like, what it's made of and how the different elements relate to each other. Instead of blindly throwing arrows at a blank board, watching other players gives us an idea of where and how things should roughly be arranged and what the final result looks like.
So, one more tip to improve the learning process: use existing drawings to speed up your game design. With existing sketches, you can learn much faster and steer the learning process in the right direction. Videos, articles, hand histories and networking with other poker players will make it easy for you to find effective sketches. How can we get the most out of existing sketches?
Let's see how monkeys learn. In some species, when a young monkey tries to learn how to crack a nut, its mother puts her hands on the baby's arms. She then manipulates his hands to crush the nut correctly. This is called modelling. Instead of simply demonstrating visually by crushing her nut, the mother can model this action directly in the cub's mind using simple technique and muscle memory. This allows the cub to learn the correct way on its own. This simulation is much more powerful than a visual demonstration because it is felt by the learner's body.
How could we use this in poker? The most well-known example is being commented on by a stronger player or coach. And that's for the simplest of reasons - your body remembers it. When you are being commented on, and the person who is commenting on you tells you to make a check-raise that you would never normally do yourself, you learn much more effectively, because it is different from just reading the theory that you should check-raise in such and such a situation. Simply pressing the button (full table feedback, seeing how your opponent thinks, you time it right and he folds and you win the pot) fills your mind with the possibility of doing it again next time. In other words, instead of using theory, your mind is experiencing things in practice. Of course, commenting is usually more than one check-raise. If someone comments for a long time, you end up absorbing a completely different style, logic and approach to poker from that player. Understanding another person's mind will help you to experience the poker blueprints in your own body
and allow you to link its possibilities to your own.
Unfortunately, while sweat can be ideal for learning, real-time commenting will not always be 
possible or even ethical. So what can we do when we can't use it? We can simulate sweating. We will discuss this a little later.
Also, another invaluable aspect of improving your mental blueprints is language. The way someone talks about poker says a lot about the way their mind is structured. Try to spot the differences between Phil Galfond, Sause and Jungleman's conversations about poker hands in their instructional videos, what do they mention first? What concepts do they usually follow? What do they not talk about? Analysing these points will give you a clearer understanding of how they think about poker and what they prefer. While these three players will often come to the same conclusions when talking about certain hands, they have very different perceptions of how poker should be played. Start speaking the right language and your understanding of poker will follow. Language is very important. And how do players learn to speak the language of poker?
Monkeys are not the only creatures that teach their young by modelling actions. Humans do the same. When parents hear their child's story, they take an active role in helping them to tell their story correctly. Children tend to just regurgitate the facts; they do not yet know how to create a coherent narrative. So parents help: "Why did Billy do that?", "And then what happened to him?", "So what did you learn in the end?". The teacher creates a framework that helps the pupil to build the right narrative structure.
Ideally, a competent poker trainer will be involved in developing the same framework. "Why are you making this bet?", "How do you think your opponent perceives your range?", "What can we infer from the hand he just show-downed?" etc. This kind of questioning is known as the Socratic method of learning, and it is effective because it leads the student towards the correct structure of thought. However, such framing does not create a narrative. It merely offers a 'skeleton' on which the story can be superimposed.
Mind mapping must be used in conjunction with exploration, risk-taking and data collection. No matter how well you use your sketches, your poker game needs to be linked to experience. The road to success is paved with playing, playing and playing some more.
Haseeb Qureshi
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