Spiral Learning

More and more poker players are pouring themselves into the strategies of the game. Most of us have read through a half-dozen poker books or more. We research the game by reading articles from our favorite authors in magazines & on web sites. We also chat and discuss the game online, getting opinions and insights from the fellow players who lurk online. I find that many poker players are putting a lot of time into learning the game, but they are not really learning effectively. We all love to see a solid return on our investments. If we spend a couple of days of our lives reading an instructional poker book, we expect to get some clear and obvious help and learning derived from those efforts. In my experience, a goodly majority of the most popular poker books on the shelves do indeed have good, helpful information. It seems that there is often a gap in the information and the reader's learning, though. Much of that boils down to the fact that we are not learning and absorbing the information optimally.

We tend to go about learning in a linear, cumulative manner. It is the tact that was taken by our school teachers for most of our education. We were taught about decimals, then how to figure if one decimal was greater or less than the next, then how to add decimals, then how to subtract, then multiply, then divide, then ... well, you get the idea. Learning compiles upon itself. It is like a freight train that keeps moving down the track and does not account for bumps in the road.

Well, it may surprise you to hear that psychologists will tell us that the educational system does not always get this teaching/learning thing correct. I can recall a High School Advanced Algebra class where a few of my classmates were struggling with the basics of dividing decimals. The teacher exclaimed in disgust, "C'mon people, you learned this is Middle School!" Yes, that was true. But once it was learned in Middle School, it was not revisited again until years later in this Advanced High School Algebra course. Our brains are not apt to hold onto stagnant, unused information for extended times. Our minds can not "shelve" learning to be easily recalled years later. Essentially, that is what we often expect when we attempt to hone our poker games. We read through the books or watch the instructional DVDs from our favorite pros. We put that information away, thinking that it has been learned. While some of our foolish teachers may have attempted that teaching strategy, we must wise up immediately. This will not work. It is time to become a more intelligent learner.

Those of us who work in the realm of psychology advocate for spiral learning. Rather than learning a concept and mindlessly moving along, spiraling involves coming back to re-learn and revisit information on a regular basis. If we really want to retain what we've attempted to learn, it takes an occasional refresher to keep that info active in the mind. With that in mind, we can not read a Sklansky book one time through and expect to truly understand pot odds, implied odds, and the statistics of the game. Information should instead be broken into smaller chunks. First you may want to read about and grasp how to count the number of outs that you have. This seems like a simple enough concept, but many folks fail to understand how to stick to counting the potential winners that will not lock you opponents into the nuts. Then you can learn more, but you still must spiral back to revisit, practice, and hone your out counting skills in the future. Even when you've moved completely past pot odds and are focused on reading tells or re-stealing from a stealer, you still must spiral back to engrain the learning of the odds. Put simply, you have to really work to really learn. So, get back to learning poker, even if you are a proven poker vet. Hit some books. Re-think your game. Peruse some poker magazines and web sites. We have to remember to spiral back in order to ignite the learning that may otherwise be becoming dormant in your mind.

John is a National Certified Counselor (NCC). He has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from West Virginia University, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Lock Haven University. You can find out more about the psychology of poker from "the Poker Counselor" at carlisle14@hotmail.com.

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