{"id":1217,"date":"2019-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/what-can-chess-and-poker-teach-us-about-decision-making-and-creativity\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:34","slug":"risk-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/risk-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can Chess and Poker Teach Us About Decision-Making and Creativity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n May 02, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

What Can Chess and Poker Teach Us About Decision-Making and Creativity?<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a>, Human Performance<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/risk-decision-making\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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Five factors that separate the great from the good in elite performance.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Pattern recognition is the foundation of decision-making in sport but the very best tend to know how and when to break those patterns in pursuit of victory.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

It is a knack refined to an artform in the worlds of chess and poker, where players must be able to repel or frustrate an opponent before employing the quicksilver attacking thinking to probe and exploit weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Thus, we invited chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and six-time World Poker champion Daniel Negreanu to speak at recent Leaders Sport Performance Summits on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

Here, the Leaders Performance Institute explores five factors that enable Nakamura and Negreanu to make the right decision when the stakes \u2013 both real and metaphorical – are at their highest<\/p>\n

1. The constant search for novelties<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nakamura told an audience at the 2018 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0that he had processed more than 100,000 chess matches in his life and learnt close to 100 rules relating to how a competitor should play. He scouts opponents via online databases \u2013 some of which detail games dating back 400 years \u2013 in the search for new ways to attack the board. Nakamura said: \u201cMost elite players play similar opening strategies, so what you\u2019re doing is looking to come up with little ideas that haven\u2019t been seen or player before \u2013 what we would call novelties. It might be move five or move 10 but you\u2019re looking for a set of moves that haven\u2019t been played before in the whole history of chess.<\/p>\n

2. An ability to exploit weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\n

The chess Grandmaster\u2019s search for novelties is what Daniel Negreanu called \u2018game theory optimal play\u2019 versus \u2018exploitative play\u2019 at the 2019 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Las Vegas<\/a>. \u201cThe best example of game theory optimal play,\u201d he began in explanation, \u201cwould be to compare it to rock, paper and scissors \u2013 what would be the optimal way to throw rock, paper and scissors \u2013 a third, a third and a third, right? If you did that, you\u2019d break even. What exploitative play is \u2018I notice that this guy throws rocks a little more often than normal, so I\u2019m going to up my paper to match that.\u2019\u201d This has enabled Negreanu to create a hybrid poker game rooted in game theory but with the scope to adjust to a known opponent. \u201cIf game theory optimal says I\u2019m meant to bluff in this situation 75% of the time,\u201d he said to moderator Peter Vint, Negreanu\u2019s notional opponent in this instance. \u201cBut I know you and I know you don\u2019t trust me so you call too much. I know I can\u2019t bluff you that often so maybe I don\u2019t bluff you 75% of the time \u2013 maybe I don\u2019t bluff you at all and I exploit your weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Knowledge of the opponent\u2019s body language<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exploitative play works best when you have a read on your opponent and can tell if their own radical moves are genuine, a bluff or a mistake made under pressure. \u201cYou have to figure out is your opponent bluffing or have they prepared something intentionally,\u201d said Nakamura, who in 2003 became America\u2019s youngest Grandmaster, at the age of 15 and 79 days. This includes studying their body language for tells across what could be a six or seven-hour game where opponents spend 10 to 20 minutes considering moves: \u201cMost chess players are not completely stoic when they play so you generally can get some sense of whether they\u2019re feeling under pressure or uncomfortable so It’s figuring out those three things: are they being serious, are they bluffing, and their body language. Those are all kind of tells, in a sense.<\/p>\n

4. The self-awareness separates the best from the rest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Negreanu told the audience that beyond exploitative play and a firm understanding of body language, the best poker players are unmoved by the variables, whether that is personal errors, an opponent\u2019s sleight of hand, or just blind luck. \u201cLook to make the right decisions even when things are not going well,\u201d he says. \u201cThe hardest thing for a poker player \u2013 and they call it \u2018tilt\u2019 \u2013 is if you lose five or six days in a row. You\u2019re making all the right decisions but then you start to question yourself. \u2018Are these players better than me? Or is this luck?\u2019 The thing that distinguishes the real top players is a self-awareness, that they can look at a situation and say \u2018OK, this is just variance, I\u2019m actually playing quite well, don\u2019t change anything.\u2019 The biggest mistake people make when things go badly is they start to make unnecessary changes. What you practice and what you study going into an event is what is going to get you there but if you start to second guess yourself; a lack of confidence is the No1 downfall of any great player.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Being a humble life learner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nakamura has long since been overtaken as America\u2019s youngest Grandmaster. The record is now held by Samuel Sevian, who became a Grandmaster in 2014 at the age of 13 years 10 months and 27 days. There is always a new generation to raise the bar and, just a few years ago, Negreanu was being regularly beaten and sensed there was more to it than mere variance. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just bad luck \u2013 I felt these guys were better than me,\u201d he admits. After some introspection, he hired a computer scientist to help him with some of the raw stats and another body language coach to school him in his own physical tells and the body language of his opponents. \u201cI could pout and talk about computer \u2018mumbo jumbo\u2019 or I could take on some people who understand this better than I do.” Negreanu has also studied courses in emotional intelligence and, prior to appearing onstage, had committed to 120 hours of personal learning. \u201cOne aspect of being successful long-term is being humble enough to realise that what I did in 2004 was awesome, it crushed everyone, but it doesn\u2019t work anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five factors that separate the great from the good in elite performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1218,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[22,21],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-1217","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching-development-performance","category-human-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Can Chess and Poker Teach Us About Decision-Making and Creativity? - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/risk-decision-making\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Can Chess and Poker Teach Us About Decision-Making and Creativity? - Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Five factors that separate the great from the good in elite performance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/risk-decision-making\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-15T05:12:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/poker-star-featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/risk-decision-making\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/risk-decision-making\/\",\"name\":\"What Can Chess and Poker Teach Us About Decision-Making and Creativity? 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