The Importance of Beginner's Mind

[That Foreign Guy]

Zen Buddhism is very in to the importance of Beginner's Mind. Bascially it refers to the importance of having an attitude of openness to new ideas, an eagerness to learn, and a lack of pre-conceptions. It is actually a concept that is supposed to remind experts to keep their minds clear.

However, beginners have even more need to have beginner's mind than experts. An empty jug will hold more water than one with rocks in it. You'll have to excuse me randomly throwing metaphors around, I have my orange pants on.

But before I talk about how to cultivate Beginner's Mind, I should probably establish why Beginner's Mind is a good thing.

Beginner's Mind will stop you making bad posts. Too often, posters (and I am very guilty of this) will post hands looking to be reassured they played correctly rather than seeking to learn.

Beginner's Mind will help your game. By being genuinely ready to learn and open to new ideas, you will have more knowledge. By being eager because things are new and exciting, you will practise using this new knowledge until it becomes

So how to cultivate Beginner's Mind?

Ignore hand and session results. There is a reason that every strategy forum FAQ asks you not to post hand results. Our egos demand that we are right. If we know that a post is asking about AsA vs Ts9s on a JsQsA board then we will give the best advice for that situation. But we never know we are in that situation until afterwards and then we can not change it. If we post the results then most people will not be able to discuss AsA vs XX on a JsQsA board. Discussing what XX might be and the best path to take against it is many times better than dissecting one very specific hand.

Ignore session results. The human mind is designed by millions of years of evolution to be able to jump to conclusions based on very small sample size. Unfortunately the randomness inherent in poker makes this dangerous. Just because you won you are not a winning player and just because you lost you are not a losing player. If a pattern starts developing, then you can be more confident about it (although there are some horrific stories of breakeven or losing runs). The best way of measuring your skills is to test your skills not your results.

There is no I. When you present a hand it should not be something that happened to you, that you are attached to, that you are unsure about, that you are angry about, or anything. It should be an interesting hand that happened to a non existent player named Hero whose memory happens to stop immediately after the decision point you are curious about. You should look at Hero's hand as dispassionately and deliberately as you look at a problem in a book. You only know what Hero knows and seek to make the best decision.

One final thought. The people who found this post most interesting will be those who least need to listen to it because they already have it. If you found yourself rejecting the ideas, ask yourself if the fault is really with the ideas?