Sitting around a poker game last week, the conversation turned to NCAA brackets and strategies for filling them out. Like anything else, there are a lot of elements to take into consideration and significant game theory behind how and why you make the picks you do. For most people, it is a very base-level process: pick your favorite team to win it all and then fill in the rest of the spots by haphazardly choosing teams, most of which you know nothing about.

What caught my interest in the discussion, though, were not the parts about which team matched up well with whom or who had an injured player, but the more broad-scope considerations that go into picking brackets. For example, picking upsets in the first round is great, but you miss out on the value of having the better teams that are more likely to win in the later rounds where the points are much more significant.

That quickly leads to the scoring of the league you happen to be in and another aspect most entrants never consider, the size of the pool. If you and eight guys from work are doing a pool, then you don’t need to get too far out on a limb to have a shot, but in a national pool with thousands and thousands of entrants, going chalk isn’t going to give you much of a shot at coming out on top. It is likely more prudent to take a few more risks than you would in a smaller pool.

While we talked about it, I didn’t really get too far into thinking about the theory behind bracket-picking, but I did start thinking a lot about the type of people who tend to view all events and situations in a strategic, game theory light. I grew up playing strategy games and, from an early age, was always analyzing and doing things to give myself what I thought was the best shot at victory with an understanding that just because in a particular instance my strategy didn’t work out didn’t mean my strategy was wrong.

In a nutshell, being a strategic thinker should help insulate you from being overly results-orientedin individual cases.

People who are analytical and strategic in real life are people I expect to be “naturals” at the poker table. They bring an approach to the game early on in their poker career that most players take years to develop, and many never do. Understanding the “why” behind what you are doing makes picking up new things easier.

A lot of players have learned to play No Limit Hold’em reasonably well. A significant number of them know what to do in many situations, but lack any real perspective on why they are taking the actions they are. So, when they try to switch over to Omaha or another game, it is a tough transition in which they almost have to go back to the start and memorize what to do in each individual circumstance. In contrast, the more game theory-based players can adjust and adapt using the “whys” from their other experiences to help them figure out the “whats” in their new endeavors.

I am always looking for ways to be better and more efficient in almost everything I do in life. If pressed, I would have probably said it was just my nature, but upon more thought, I think it is at least somewhat a result of me being involved in strategic thinking from an early age and participating in game theory long before I had ever heard the term.

As I write this, the first of the Thursday games are just finishing up and I am two-for-two so far in my bracket (along with almost everyone else). Enjoy the games and spend a little time thinking about how you might fill out a bracket differently in a 30-man pool versus a 30,000-man pool. Then, you can justify watching basketball as a way to improve your poker game.

Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at PokerRoadCourt@gmail.com.