I have been reading a book about professional poker players and their lives when they are not playing poker. It is very interesting, and has several interviews with pro poker players. It seems most of these players before they go pro, they call it grinding, but it seems they are just slumming along. Several of them have the characteristics of an alcoholic. Why I have chosen to write about this book is mostly because of the interview I have read. The players explain how they do well and make deep runs in tournaments. They all seemed to agree the key is to get into the right mind set. The more I heard it explained, these poker players were talking about experiencing “flow”. They describe it as action and awareness, where every move they make is the right one. Turner even said flow is most commonly reached through sports.
What surprised me more than the poker players talking about flow was the poker players describing how to make long runs in a tournament. What they described was being in a liminal state. They described having short term memory, thinking only about the current hand. They did not worry about the past or what was to come. They kept their mind state in control and didn’t get ahead of themselves. It was so interesting to read these interviews and bios of these poker players hearing exactly what we were learning in class about flow and liminality. It is pretty cool learn something in class then come across it again when looking at something you think is completely unrelated.
No comments:
Post a Comment