Ron "Texas Gardy" Gardenhire vs Slim Jim Leyland
The most difficult job in baseball doesn’t belong to a pitcher or catcher. It belongs to the team manger. A manager has numerous factors and strategies that he has to consider each and every game, and that is in addition to dealing with the personalities on his bench and in the bullpen. Texas Holdem poker players are very similar to managers in the types of situations that they have to deal with every time they sit down to the poker tables. Let’s look at a few of those common similarities.
A poker player is very similar to a manager in baseball in that he has to analyze not only his own play, but also the play of the players at the table. He has to be able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents, but unlike a manager in baseball, a poker player has to do this on the fly and many times without the help of any advance scouting information.
Even if a poker player has information on his opponent, he has to watch for tendencies in the other players. In baseball, a manager can easily recognize when a player is playing exceptionally well or above his typical skill set. Adversely, they can also see when their players are not playing well. Poker players have to watch out for this as well and adjust their play the same way that managers do.
Also, baseball and poker are very situational. If your opponent has runners on second and third and a left handed batter comes to the plate, you might adjust the outfield or even put in a reliever that has done well against this batter. Poker players have to make on the fly adjustments based on what they know of the other players and how they are playing. Does this player have a tendency to fold when pressure is applied on the turn? Do they bet too often on the flop? You have to analyze each situation and adjust.
Sites that feature online poker games often talk about the mental game of poker. The mental aspect of poker is easily the element that often separates winning players and losing players. The same is true for baseball. Think about the best managers in the game and they will all have a genius level IQ when it comes to the game. The big difference is that when a baseball manager put together a winner, he is immortalized while the poker player just moves on to the next game.
