GTO Poker Theories - Hick's Law
Fewer options mean you have more time to concentrate on what is important 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.
Hick's Law is a psychological principle that explains the relationship between the number of choices available and the time it takes to make a decision. The principle was first introduced in 1952 by British psychologist William Edmund Hick.
According to Hick's Law, the more options you have to choose from, the longer it will take you to make a decision. This is because as the number of options increases, so does the amount of time it takes for your brain to process the information and select the best option.
One real-life example of Hick's Law in action is menu design. A restaurant with a large menu that offers numerous options for each category may overwhelm diners and lead to longer decision-making times. In contrast, a restaurant with a smaller, more focused menu can make decision-making quicker and easier. If you ever watch Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, he always suggests scaling down the restaurant's menu.
Those of us who remember a time when TVs only had a handful of channels know all about Hick's Law. In the UK when I was a child we only had four channels, and we always found something to watch. With cable TV and streaming services, we have nearly infinite things to watch, yet we find it harder to pick something.
Keep things simple
We saw a good example of Hick's Law this week when 888poker decided to remove SNGs from their game offering. When a site offers too many formats and stakes, it can lead to none of the games filling up. The BLAST games at 888poker will no doubt get even more traffic now that the 'SNG distraction' is gone from the lobby.
We have also seen this with blind lobbies. There was a time when every table was viewable in a lobby, but now there is just a button to join each stake variant. The reason for this is primarily to stop predatory game selection but is also an example of Hick's Law. There will be no needless scanning the lobbies trying to pick a game, you just get started on the games you frequent.
Solver technology has presented a more niche example of Hick's Law. One of the big debates in GTO is how many bet sizes a solver should have input into it. Some solver advocates argue that you need to tell a solver as many possible bet sizes it could use, because in No Limit you have near infinite possible bets you can make. The other school of thought is to keep things simple with more of a small, medium, and big bet strategy. For the most part, the solver arrives at the same broad conclusions and from a user perspective it is much easier to apply the lessons.
From a mindset perspective, Hick's Law is an important reminder to keep your decision-making as simple as possible, because the alternative uses up a lot of mental resources.
What theories from outside of poker have helped your game? Let us know in the comments.
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