‘Resulting,’ Poker, and Better Decision-Making

Imagine pushing all your chips in with a bad hand in poker. Your nerves would tremble at the thought of losing a bet you can’t really afford to lose. Then, you score a pair of twos on “the River” (third card). Then, by the grace of God, you earn a second pair (of sevens) on “the flop” (fourth card). 

Holding an unsuited two and seven is the worst hand in poker.

And, you just got lucky! A professional poker player would be ashamed. An amateur would be ecstatic. Why, you ask? 

Former professional poker player and current speaker/strategist, Annie Duke, would call this resulting. Resulting is “equating the quality of a decision with its outcome.” In the example above, the decision is mathematically a horrible one despite the results. 

One of my great pleasures in life is finding different avenues that arrive at the same basic truths independently. In the sports world, we call Duke’s poker strategy “process orientation.” 

At the University of San Diego, the baseball program lived and died by a saying: “We won’t accept in victory that which we wouldn’t accept in defeat.” After all, once you realize that you can win on accident and lose despite covering all your basis – process orientation is your only chance at sanity and long term greatness.