I agree with everything that the author said about using checklists while playing. And his example of the checklists used by pilots points out clearly that even "the pros", in whatever field, can use checklists to prevent mistakes, be they small or catastrophic.
But I want to look at checklists from a different angle. Checklists can be useful not just
while playing, but
before playing.
Playing poker at a high level isn't just about what happens at the table. It's about bankroll managment. It's about discipline. It's about study. And checklists can help you be more organized in these areas as well.
Full disclosure: I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I tend to be disorganized and easily distracted. I need to impose structure on my time and activities, and checklists help me very much with doing that
Like many others who have ADD, by necessity I have seen the benefit of using a checklist for everything from running errands to playing poker. I can also spot players on these forums who emphasize the freedom of poker, players who want to be free to "play poker in my underwear, whenever I want:"--which usually means that they don't need to take a systematic approach to the game.
In the rest of this post, I'm talking about players on these forums who say that they want to get better. They ask for help. They say that they want to make a certain amount of money. They say that they are serious about getting better at the game.
I believe that the biggest hole that many of these players have in their game is that they don't have a systematic plan of study. They don't set aside a significant amount of their poker hours for study, or maybe they don't even know how much total time per week that they spend on poker. They will even argue that there are certain things that they don't even need to know (usually either bankroll management, or anything that involves math or memorization.)
I submit that there are certain things that every poker player should know if he wants to be good at the game, that those things make a pretty long list, and that the best way to approach it is systematically.
For example, here is a partial list of things that a serious player might work on or study:
bankroll management
pot odds and outs
putting villian on a range
recognizing your table image
reading tells/giving off tells/false tells
ICM
memorization (more than just odds and outs)
keeping track of pot and stack sizes (live games)
short stack or final table tournament play
Of course, these topics can be subdivided. For example, if you're a live tournament player and you want to work on putting players on a range, you might pick one or two players, for example, the player on your left and the big stack, and see if you can keep track of how many hands they are playing from early position. When you get better at it, you can track more players, or the same number of players from more positions.
Another example is memorization, and as someone who frequently answers questions in the beginners forum, it's one of my biggest 2+2 frustrations. I will tell a player that it is useful to know what the odds are that he is holding the only ace at a short table, and the poster, who has come on 2+2 asking for help, insists that he doesn't need to know that, after I refer him to this chart:
http://pokersyte.com/texas_holdem_poker_odds_2.htm
Really? It's not useful to know that if you're holding A2o against 3 opponents, you have a 68% chance of holding the only ace? Or that against 6 or more opponents, you probably
don't have the only ace? Knowing the numbers certainly affects how I play my weak aces shoft-handed!
So in memorization alone there is a lot to learn, which of course starts with odds and outs, and I'm astounded when I see a recommendation that someone learn to use the rule of 2 and 4 (I think that's what it's called) to estimate their odds. Seriously? Someone who memorized multiplication tables in elementary school can't memorize odds and outs?
The bottom line is there is a lot to learn, and it's easy to skip over, or consciously avoid, some of it, it you don't have a plan. In general, here's how I do it. Call it Checklists Gone Wild if you wish, but in my situation it works for me, and at least some of my ideas could be applied to a lot of players who really don't have a plan for improving at poker.
I keep track of my hours, just like I'm punching a time clock, by quarter hours. The main reason for that is to make sure that I get my study time in. I'm an MTT player, and it would be easy to go deep in a tournament, or finish one and see that another was about to start, and forget all about studying that day. But when I'm commited to daily entry of my work hours on a spreadsheet, I can quickly see if I'm not getting enough study hours in, and correct that by the end of the week.
As far as what to study, I have a big master list, which is basically all of the things that I would like to work on or study someday. I'm always thinking of more things that I should work on, and I might never get to everything. For example, studying tells is on that list, but I've never bothered with it, since I rarely play live. However, Black Friday changed everything, and playing move live poker, and studying tells, has moved way up my list of priorities.
So, I will generally pick a topic, and then work on a piece of that for a day or a week. For example, I might decided to work on tells, read a book, and then pick one thing (such as chip-handling tells) to concentrate on in my next live tournment. Or, I might decide to do some memory work, make some flash cards, and memorize the strength of every preflop hand against a random hand (The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition, pages 108-109.)
Or, I might spend a week on a new poker book. I usually read it quickly the first time, then slow down the second time and play a little more attention to the concepts. Then, either right away or sometime in the future, I might concentrate on a certain chapter or section of the book, studying it in more detail, working through all the math, and making sure that I really understand and can apply the information.
The point of all this isn't that my way is the best way. The point is that in poker, having a checklist (or at least some kind of plan) for study, is just as important as having a plan when you sit at the table. In fact, there are so many things to study that I would say that without a checklist, something important is going to be missed.
It is said that poker is about pushing small edges. By doing the study, you give yourself an edge. If you have memorzied the Odds for Aces Before the Flop table at pokersyte.com, and your opponent hasn't, villian probably has some idea that as the table gets shorter, he is more likely to be holding the only ace. But you know the exact numbers, and villian is guessing or estimating. You have given yourself an edge in that situation.
Take your study time seriously, and do it systematically. Use a checklist, and study everything. Gvie the edge to yourself, not your opponent.
Two Plus Two
Re: Should You Use Checklists?
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