Handling the coolers in live poker from the perspective of micro-communication theories

Another fundamental skill that every professional player must know how to master is to know how to “fold”. I’m referring to the ability to fold a great hand, but not the best, the classic situation cooler. When in a live tournament, you cannot ignore the huge amount of data that can arise in every spot and that can profoundly affect choices. The problem is that mathematics cannot handle this data, it does not belong to its dimension, one is totally immersed in the dimension of Information. 

Mathematical definition of “Information” 

It was two mathematicians, Shannon and Weaver [1949], who wanted to define communication first by proposing the “mathematical model of communication”. Because of the unidirectional perspective of their theory, the same model was superseded by the later more evolved and complete, which considered the most complex components of communication, such as feedback, context, communicative implicits, verbal and non-verbal language, the effects of communicating in society, etc. They too have shown that mathematics cannot explain communication or, better, like any other scientific discipline that deals with it, can explain only some aspects.

The importance of interdisciplinary method in live Texas Hold’em poker tournaments

That’s what each athlete must be prepared to do in a live tournament session. The adoption of the interdisciplinary analytical methodology, by the individual participant will allow to recognize and define each game situation. The scientific disciplines made available by communication theories will allow each subject to reflect more deeply on the information acquired. In this way it will be possible to fill the interpretative gap, defining the situation more deeply, inducing, as in the specific case, to fold a good hand, but not winning. In an online context, in which it is possible to open multiple game tables at the same time, not being able to access any other type of information, all that remains is to rely on the calculation of the EV alone.

Go to the next article to not miss the thread of the Skill Poker Index speech, or go to the first article of the series to resume it.

Pietro Semeraro

Transl. by Margherita Basile