No he was right to question this, he said, "you might hear a sound, and see a color", which what the general population does. If you have synesthesia you might see a sound or hear a colour amongst other effects a normal person would view as unusual.

Agreed. Here's the full link

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-B...-Daniel-Tammet

In it, they also meet the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man. It's really fascinating.

poker is for degenrates and people who don't want a real job

this is the kind of guy who is supposed to invent some new breakthrough technology to allow poker players to 100 table

This is semantics. I am pretty sure they ment it as "it might be possible for someone with synesthesia that IF you hear a sound, THEN u also see a color" when they said "you might hear a sound, and see a color". The hearing of sounds creates the experience of seeing color. They are connected by the AND. You might hear the sound of the letter e, and see the color yellow.

Not "you might hear a sound and you might see a color". This is a silly general statement to make.

It sounds to me as if this guy could be very good with a li'l experience. His math skills sound so innate and instinctual that he would definitely excel eventually, and obviously much faster than more conventional and less impressive thinkers. I gotta check out that documentary. Never heard of synesthesia, think I'll do some research. Thanks, interesting thread.

I bet he would be able to beat most stud games with little training. Stud is a game that mathmatical computing would be a much larger edge vs. hold 'em which for the most part is basic arithmatic and much heavier on pure strategy

Nice doc, gifted and beautiful person.

Lol @ him calling Letterman a very handsome man on his Late Night appearance though.

hmm what links most savants is a severe debilitation, makes you think that its resting there normally, but we filter those abilities somehow, I just really don't by they are injured here, so they compensate this way... not to the point you can memorize this language in a week or read War and Peace in under an hour... its gotta be in people already...

love this scene

"He's not catching the hole card, he's not past-posting us, I don't see him using a computer. Something's not right."

A man like this, could quite so possibly be in agreement that there is such thing as platonic existence and philosophical pursuit of happiness.

Insanity for sure.

Go on....

Just read some stuff......that guy's pretty sick (in the good way I mean)


Obviously he'd be able to always know his equity vs. a supposed range. And with PT #'s he'd be able to assume ranges pretty well I think.

So the only question I guess is can he put opponent's on the right ranges most of the time especially can he adjust ranges for position and history (and he would remember all that history so another + as long as he doesn't overestimate some of it cause his opponents won't remember it all) and blah blah blah.......and also could he then take the info and come up witht he right way to play the hand to maximize his value.



Probably a ton of other better stuff he could be doing than playing poker though.

It's just a rant...philosophical matters never concern me directly, such as.

Cuz you were there, right?

He watched that movie, probably.

Not to rainman on ur parades, but autism, great memory and in a lesser degree synethesia are not desirable traits at all, unless you enjoy watching washmachines tumble on for hours and being obsessed with the colors the sounds make. He needs his mom or dad to dress him, before he gets to reiterate Pi for hours to bored students.

A pocket calculator can be programmed to recite Pi for hours too, does not mean my pocket calculator is the next Einstein. Bet he could not program or do abstract math if his life depended on it. If it can't be memorized, there is little skill to show off. Would not say he would be bad at online poker, memorizing charts and all, but only as long as his parents allow him to play.

Derren Brown isnt even close to this guy he's more of a magician. Beleive it or not he also stages some of his "mind tricks"

was a great video clip except the blackjack part which was beyond ******ed

Savants like this are hired by Major League baseball teams...
To study opposing pitcher's patterns from the dugout...
And signal the next pitch and location to the batter.

Yea, I was wondering the same thing as I read your post.

amazing!

first time i have heard of daniel tammet.soooooo incredible.
or the rain man kim peek. wtf he reads every page in 8sec.

does anyone happen to know how high their IQs are?

The real question is when is the next Joe the Pro episode.

+1

No the whole 'banned from casinos' thing is not really true. Also pretty much everything Derren does is just the same stuff other illusionists (e.g. David Copperfield or whoever) do - he just sells it as 'mind tricks' instead of 'magical powers' since it's more believable these days.

All of those 'poker' and other casino tricks he performed is actually just sleight of hand, non-standard decks of cards etc.

Wow your ignorance amazes me. Yeah he has autism but he's managed to become a fully functioning member of society on his own. Straight out of high school he travelled to a third world country lived on his own and taught english... Not many 'average' people would be able to do this. Not to mention he's formed relationships, started a succesful business and been able to write a book. He must be a ****** who dribbles on himself because he has autism though? Just because you watched rainman doesn't mean you're an expert on austism.

Don't blame me. I've got autism.