GTO Poker Theories - Cargo Culting
Simplying copying what seems to work for others is not the way to make it work for yourself, in business and poker.
One of the real gifts poker has given me is that it has been a great jumping-off point to learn things from other disciplines like economics, AI, psychology, and Game Theory. So here is a series of articles where I bring some of the most interesting things I have learned from other subjects outside of poker which are applicable to this game we know and love.
Cargo Culting, or Cargo Cult Thinking, is when people copy the appearance of something successful without understanding how or why it works.
The idea comes from island communities after the Second World War, who built fake airstrips and wooden aircraft, hoping this would bring back the cargo planes they had seen during the war. They copied what they saw, but they did not understand the real reasons the planes had come in the first place.
A modern example might be a company that sees Google’s colourful offices, free lunches, and flexible work hours and decides to copy those perks, hoping it will create the same level of innovation and success. But if they ignore Google’s deep focus on hiring, engineering culture, and long-term investment in research, the perks alone are unlikely to have much effect. They are copying the visible features, not the systems behind them.
Pattern recognition vs the fundamentals
Cargo Culting reminds me of something I think about a lot when it comes to poker study. Some players simply copy the "prescribed" strategy without knowing why.
Modern solver technology can often provide us with answers to poker questions. But do we look at the why behind a solver output, or do we simply copy it?
The best way to use a solver is to try and work out why it does what it does, the worst way is to use it to line check without any further investigation.
My coach, Dara O'Kearney, often comments that most players learn by pattern recognition, rather than understanding the fundamentals behind a solver output. For example, they will use a GTO trainer and, through trial and error, know that Ace high flops are usually range bet flops, while a 943 rainbow is an overbet flop.
They don't know the why behind these two distinct strategies. It's not an issue in most cases, but it means that when a situation requires more nuance or deviation from the baseline strategy, these players will struggle.
What theories from outside of poker have helped your game? Let us know in the comments.
