Quote:
Originally Posted by the_spike
Is the assertion in this thread that Dr. Cardner advises taking a hot shower as a means of tilt control, based on the quotes given? If so, the assertion is wrong. It's such a simple logic/math problem that I feel silly having to explain. Being grateful (for something, such as having hot water for my morning shower) as a means of tilt control does not imply that the "something" is the means of tilt control. Gratitide is the act, the shower is an indirect side effect, and it could be any one of a number of things. You could just as easily be grateful for your toothpaste and the water to brush your teeth with, and neither the tooth brushing nor the drinking of the water would be the tilt reduction techniques.
networth appears to understand this, as I would assume the other thread readers do as well.
This is similar to some basic Buddhist beliefs, which seems to work for over 500 million people. You could say the Buddha was the ultimate tilt reducer.
This is so obvious that I feel silly stating it, so I will assume that is not the assertion in this thread. But that does leave me wondering what the assertion of this thread is. Maybe I'll feel silly when someone explains something really simple that I missed.
I think Cardner's argument goes something like this.
Gratitude is something that can reduce stress and this is good for your poker game.
Now I agree that in the world of sports, and in my book
Real Poker Psychology I frequently use tennis since I've been playing tennis from a young age, I do agree that stress reduction and being relaxed on the tennis court can be helpful for fluid movement which results in proper execution of ground strokes, volleys, serve, and so on. But what does it do for you in poker?
As I show in my book, games can be broken into two components which I'll call here their knowledge component and their execution component. It's my opinion that poker has a large knowledge component, certainly much larger than the knowledge component for tennis. But its execution component is quite small when compared to virtually any athletic sport. That is you don't need speed, timing, and coordination to throw your chips into the pot. And the execution component is where things like speed, timing, and coordination come in, and that's where something like gratitude (which is suppose to reduce stress) is helpful.
So here is an example of an idea which probably comes from the sports world that has at best little value in poker. And one other thing, your toothpaste won't help you with your poker game either.
Mason