Palm the Joker

Just bought Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” yesterday and devoured it, finishing up about 30 minutes ago. The thesis of the book is basically that the people at the top of their fields who we assume have risen to such success solely based on their own abilities and genius actually received several less obvious advantages along the way. As I find myself doing with most things nowadays, I started thinking about how the lessons could be applied to poker.

The part that stuck out to me the most was a chapter called “The 10,000 Hour Rule,” which details how, in nearly any arena, someone won’t really achieve world class status until they have put in 10,000 hours of practice. The rule is not Gladwell’s invention, but it was my first prolonged exposure to it, and it really got me thinking. To be honest, I’m not sure there’s anyone that’s put in 10,000 hours playing online. After all, that’s pretty much 40 hrs/week every week since the very first poker rooms opened. And when you think about online superstars, most of them aren’t even old enough to have been playing legally for more than 3-4 years. How does live poker fit into that mix? There are probably plenty of old grizzled dudes that have been making a living playing live for decades and put in way more than 10,000 hours. But generally those aren’t the ones that anyone thinks of as the best.

That stuff is all idle speculation, but basically what I got out of it is that to be the best at anything requires a level of commitment and dedication that is bordering on unhealthy. Even guys that we generally consider to be geniuses with unnatural levels of talent and ability have to put in ridiculous hours to get to the top. I honestly get guilty reading about it, because I (very immodestly) feel that to get to where I am now after the limited time I’ve put in required some innate ability. If I had the drive and dedication that a lot of the world’s most successful people have, I could be playing the highest stakes available right now.

Anyway, I feel like I didn’t really do this subject justice, but my plane is about to board. Pick up the book if you get a chance, I really enjoyed it.