I’m a bit baffled. What counts as “making a choice?” Is it the same as making a decision?
Here’s where my question comes from. I play poker online. Last night, in fact, for the first time ever I opened 8 different tables, and then I played at all 8 for almost 5 hours straight. My software says I played over 2,000 hands of poker. Each hand represents at least one decision, and often a series. Decision 1, fold or play this hand from this position. Decision 2, if play, raise or call. Decision 3, if still in the hand on the flop, bet/raise/call. And so on. So I probably made between 5,000 and 10,000 different decisions (“choices”?) in one evening.
The study would imply that I had massively reduced self-control after that, I assume. I went to bed pretty shortly thereafter, so I can’t speak to that one way or the other.
But it would also seem to imply that I must have played very bad poker during the last hour or so—my self-control must have been dead, and a critical part of playing good poker is self-control: folding hands that need folding can be a very difficult effort, especially when you have a good hand but your instincts are telling you it’s second-best. It’s so, so easy to talk yourself into a call “just to see,” but that habit costs real money.
Now it’s true that sometimes I do play worse poker as a session goes on, but sometimes I don’t. Last night, despite playing more hands in one session than I ever have before, I don’t think I fell apart toward the end.
Am I missing something very basic here? Probably so.
I’m a bit baffled. What counts as “making a choice?” Is it the same as making a decision?
Here’s where my question comes from. I play poker online. Last night, in fact, for the first time ever I opened 8 different tables, and then I played at all 8 for almost 5 hours straight. My software says I played over 2,000 hands of poker. Each hand represents at least one decision, and often a series. Decision 1, fold or play this hand from this position. Decision 2, if play, raise or call. Decision 3, if still in the hand on the flop, bet/raise/call. And so on. So I probably made between 5,000 and 10,000 different decisions (“choices”?) in one evening.
The study would imply that I had massively reduced self-control after that, I assume. I went to bed pretty shortly thereafter, so I can’t speak to that one way or the other.
But it would also seem to imply that I must have played very bad poker during the last hour or so—my self-control must have been dead, and a critical part of playing good poker is self-control: folding hands that need folding can be a very difficult effort, especially when you have a good hand but your instincts are telling you it’s second-best. It’s so, so easy to talk yourself into a call “just to see,” but that habit costs real money.
Now it’s true that sometimes I do play worse poker as a session goes on, but sometimes I don’t. Last night, despite playing more hands in one session than I ever have before, I don’t think I fell apart toward the end.
Am I missing something very basic here? Probably so.
Can someone explain what it is? Thanks.