[Sherman]

I have a contention with the "Poker is a great teacher" part of the article:

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Research clearly proves that people tend to repeat rewarded actions and to discontinue punished ones. Poker teaches by rewarding desirable actions such as thinking logically and understanding other people and by punishing undesirable ones such as ignoring the odds and acting impulsively.2 Other learning principles also apply to poker.

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This makes the assumption that winning or making money is the "reward" for people playing poker. As Dr. Schoonmaker has pointed out himself many times, this is not the soul reason a person plays poker. In fact, many people play poker knowing full well that they expect to lose money. But they play because they recieve various other "rewards" including but not limited to a) friendships, b) a good time, and c) fulfilling gambling impulses.

For these people, poker does not necessarily teach them to think logically and to pay attention to odds. In fact, for people who gain the aforementioned rewards by losing, poker reinforces illogical thinking and ignorance of odds because in doing so, they gain friendship and fulfill their gambling impulses.

Sherman

Edit: For spelling.