GTO Poker Theories: Solomon's Paradox
It's much easier to solve a friend's problem than your own, in life and at the poker tables.
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 in this game we know and love.
Why is it that we are able to help people with their problems much better than we can deal with our own? Why is it that we can often see the solution clearly when a friend is in a quandary, but cannot think straight when we have a dilemma? This is known as Solomon's Paradox.
Named after King Solomon, a man who was considered incredibly wise and people would travel for hundreds of miles to seek his council. Yet his own life was plagued with bad decisions - he had womanising issues, he could not control his finances and failed to prevent his son from ruining the kingdom.
We see this manifest in all sorts of ways in modern life. When we are close to a problem, we are unable to be objective about it. Most of us, for example, know a healthcare professional who struggles with their diet, drinking or smoking, despite the fact that they often have to treat or advise people with the exact same issues.
The antidote to Solomon's Paradox is to try and find ways to look at your problems as if you were an outsider. Ask yourself what your advice would be if it were a close friend or relative in the exact same situation?
Help others to help yourself
There are a few interesting ways we see this manifest in poker. Most of us are much better at reviewing and arriving at the correct answer for how to play a hand when we are not the one playing it. How often have you watched a hand on a poker live stream and been screaming about the right way to play it, yet the streamer cannot help themselves go down the wrong road with it??
I know a lot of coaches in poker who all say that the act of coaching actually improves their own games. Explaining good strategy to another player fortifies your own knowledge about something, as well as exposes blind spots that need work. But perhaps there is an added benefit in coaching others in that you are teaching from a more objective viewpoint. You are not thinking about how to play a hand based on a recent downswing/upswing, you are looking at the hand more in a vacuum.
You don't need to be a coach to benefit from the upside of Solomon's Paradox. A great way you can take the subjectivity out of your study is to visit our hand history forum and post your comments on other people's hands. You get the benefit of helping others and also you get important 'reps' in the form of hand history study, without letting your own playing biases creep in. Plus if a more experienced player corrects you, you feel less defensive because it is not a hand you played.
What theories from outside of poker have helped your game? Let us know in the comments.
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