PZ106: Reverend Alex Preaches Poker Theory

I have mentioned on many occasions the biggest mistake of contemporary poker training: the confusion of data with theory. So I was interested when online expert Alex ‘Reverend Bayes’ Pinheiro announced the sale of a poker theory course. If words mean anything, this could be an answer for many.

Now, it did not go past me that Alex described the course as a series of heuristics to approximate GTO, which is not exactly the same thing as providing the reasons for things and principles for moving forward. Yet once we got past this, I’m thinking his new offering, The GTO Textbook, really is an explanation of poker theory, along with those necessary simplifications and concepts. I like the sound of his heuristics and strategy concepts. His answers and explanations ring true. This makes his course potentially valuable and separates it from the claptrap being peddled all over and in every medium.

The poker teaching community is small. Alex mentions Peter Clarke, a poker coach and poker writer to whom I often recommend players. Some of the vocabulary Peter invents I heard through Thomas Pinnock; it’s not clear to me who invented what. Yet I recognize in even the table of contents of Alex’s piece many of the ideas, or even inversions of the same ideas, that I and many coaches use. As Alex suggested on the podcast, we are all going in the same direction; perhaps the difference is where we proceed from.

It was interesting to hear Alex describe the simplicity of his personal sizing scheme. It suddenly struck me that the complexity we introduce often exposes us all the more. Of course I preach balance within mixes, too, but maybe all you have to do is be on fire for EV as well as the Lord. Different sizes are tools for unlocking another player’s armor, to paraphrase Alvin, himself another excellent theorist in the tight scrum of poker experts. However, if you are the enigma and you present near perfectly, let them dare try.

As we drift into some culture and politics talk, the Reverend does lean into his advertised Rationality Culture. Peter praises him on his site as “rational”; the word keeps coming up. Of course, this can be a mixed blessing. Simple ideas, like Musk’s demolition of important programs across the spectrum of the government’s purview, were based in a logical rationale. Encouraging weed in NYC, while following the libertarian ideal, has made life uglier. While it wasn’t discussed, reasonable people can see that the agreed, historical control of weapons in urban situations can be a useful truce even while fostering the individual rights the new generations seem to be easily forgetting. As for the present hysterias, whether on gambling or rent control or fascistic physical fitness or whatever regurgitated backwardness they want to impose, it’s clear Alex will play his role in shaping our country.

Hope you enjoy the podcast. With three episodes in the latest round of Zoo interviews, I have awarded myself a new set of headphones. Hearing the guest may improve things around here!

The post PZ106: Reverend Alex Preaches Poker Theory appeared first on Out of Position.