Which of the Sixteen Personality Types is the Ideal for Poker? By Dan Mezick. Posted 06/06/2004.
What’s the most valuable personality trait for the winning poker player? Is it patience? Discipline? Imagination? Reason? I believe the strongest poker skill (really more of an innate attribute) to have is the ability to self-examine your play in a rigorous, continual, ongoing way. I also believe that specific personality types are more likely to do this effortlessly.
Variance in Short-Term Results Makes Self-Exam Manditory
Every player needs to assess his skills relative to the field of opponents. The key thing is not to simply get self-critical in an event-driven way; for example not driven by big losses or due to steady losses from running bad. The key thing to have is automatic, continual examination of your play, winning or losing. The main reason for this is the large variance in poker results. Because of that variance, results do not map precisely to the quality of your play. This means you can be winning over the short term while actually playing with big holes in your overall game. Without the motivation and ability to take stock of your game, you run the risk is believing your game is very solid.
An Optimal Personality for Poker?
Some personality types are more apt to be self-critical and self-reflective. These are probably the types that are apt to do well at poker. My previous essay, Poker and Introverts, speculated that introverts are probably well suited for poker because they are predisposed to more self-examination and personal reflection.
I think there is probably an optimal mix of personality characteristics for successful poker. It's an area of poker that represents and opportunity for much more research. The essay Poker and Introverts is an attempt to provoke and instigate such research, by people more inclined and qualified than me to do it.
Are Introverts Natural At Self-Examination?
I strongly suspect that the majority of good players have a much-more-than-minimal weight of introvert characteristics in their overall makeup. I suspect at least 60% of consistent poker winners have at least a middle-weighting of introversion in their personality. The remaining 40% of the population of consistent winners have probably overcome aspects of their personality type that work against them at poker. They manage, monitor, squelch and control their own temperament, such that they can effectively function at the table as winning poker players. It’s likely the investment of effort and energy and discipline needed to do this is very large.
My main point is that there is probably a hypothetical player personality type, for whom playing winning poker is innately natural. By this, I mean the player has few innate characteristics that he must control, monitor, squelch or manage to win at poker. His innate nature, in fact, is conducive to solid poker. This player focuses all his energy on the key thinking activities of poker. Not every player can do that, in large part because of temperament.
Consider the total, 100% extrovert. I suspect this type of personality is in conflict with himself when he plays winning poker. He does, after all, have to shut up and observe others, quietly— and for long periods of time. This is contrary to his extroverted, expressive nature.
There is likely an ideal mix of personality traits that facilitate winning poker. In terms of introvert/extrovert, the ideal personality is likely somewhere in the middle but skewed toward the introvert side of the range.
But “introvert/extravert” is just one axis of personality measurement. These two extremes are not the ONLY measures of total personality.
Very Telling: The Myers-Briggs Personality Profile
The Myers-Briggs personality test measures personal temperament. According to this method, there are 4 basic personalities and 4 subtypes within the 4 basic types, for a total of 16. I strongly suspect that a small minority of these types, perhaps 2 or 3, are very likely predominant in the poker players at the very top of the game today.
Personality research on poker champions needs to be done by academics. Assume such research takes place. Further, assume the research proves me right—say there are 1, 2, or 3 types that are best suited to winning poker play.
In that case, it gets very interesting.
If it turns out that, for whatever reason, a good measure of introversion is poker’s “secret ingredient”, then this is going to radically alter the way introverts view themselves. It will also alter how the world views them.
Yes, it is well known that chess masters are often introverts. Yet the world chess champion does not win five million dollars in cash, as did the World Series of Poker Champion in 2004. The history of chess is not uniquely American, as is poker. As we all know, American society richly rewards total extroverts. The idea that introverts somehow have an big advantage in a uniquely American (and intensely competitive) game like poker has got to have a positive effect on how introverts are perceived worldwide.
Research into poker personality would likely start with a study of the current population of known long-run champions in tournament and cash games. I strongly suspect that the majority of current poker champions have the 'INTP' or 'INTJ' personality types.
INTP is short for 'Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving', and INTJ is short for 'Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging'. My best guess is that the INTJ type is probably the most predisposed to poker, because this type is motivated by the practical application of knowledge more so than the INTP. I've listed some links below on these types for those who want to dig deeper into this topic.
Perhaps 70, 75 or even 80% of all poker champions are of these two types. If this was an verified scientific fact, what might that mean for poker worldwide? Perhaps a correct but inverse conclusion could be correctly drawn. Perhaps some specific Myers-Briggs personality types are more apt to perform poorly at poker, in the same way a narrow subset of personality types is apt to do very well.
Speculations on the Future of Poker
Perhaps, winning poker players will strain to act and think more along the lines of the natural winning, introspective personality profile indicated by scientific research. Perhaps children who possess the "winning poker profile" will be encouraged to play poker, and will astound the world with innate and natural poker senses that rival the very best players in the game today.
I’m hoping academic researchers will do the spadework in this area. I really do believe that as a result of research in areas such as poker personality, we are going to see the game played, in the future, at a level that is literally inconceivable to us today.
Hopefully essays like this one will prompt more research activity regarding the ideal winning poker personality profile.
I strongly suspect there is one.
Related Links:
A Quick Myers-Briggs Personality Test (determine your personality type)
Speed Reading People: How to Size People Up (and speak their language). This is a book on Myers-Briggs research. It's 100% applicable to poker. The book teaches you about the clues that indicate other people's personality type, including speaking style, body language, and occupation.
Deep detail on the INTP personality type
Details on the INTJ personality type
The Definitive Book on Myers-Briggs testing explained: Gifts Differing by Myers & Briggs
Check this poker page of a self-admitted INTP. Take a look at his home page. Are the INTP or INTJ types more likely to play winning poker?
About the Author: Dan Mezick writes poker essays intended to rapidly advance the evolution of the game.