People who have a mathematical way of thinking are lucky for sure, but it doesn’t mean they are the only ones who excel in logic and activities tied to numbers. Some people subconsciously avoid playing chess, for example, just because they are not very good at calculating, and others shy away from games like Sudoku just because they see lots of numbers in front of them. Well, the reality is different, as you may be bad at math but good with numbers because even people who manage huge companies, buy and sell businesses are not always the ones that have a head for math.

What about using intuition over equations?

Poker, especially Texas Hold’em, is often described as a game of psychology as much as mathematics. Successful poker play often comes from a logical feel for the game: knowing when an opponent is weak, sensing the right moment to bluff, or recalling an experience from countless past hands that guides a split-second decision. This is a part of the player’s skillset that everyone knows very well, if they played poker at least once at a casino venue, with friends or maybe an online Texas holdem on digital platforms. In fact, researchers note that technical poker skill isn’t only about formulas – it also means making “skilled intuitive judgments” based on a feel for the game.

Professional players themselves are divided on the role of math versus intuition. Some champions are incredibly analytical, poring over odds and game theory scenarios. Others, like famed player Daniel Negreanu, rely more on intuition and reading people than on explicit calculations. Negreanu might not sit calculating his exact 17% chance to hit a flush on the turn – instead, he reads the table and trusts his gut. Yet even these “feel” players are unconsciously tapping into the game’s numeric truths. 

Sometimes numbers are hard to avoid, though.

Even if a poker pro leans on intuition, the numbers are always lurking under the surface. Every deal of the cards is governed by probability. Just take a look at the video below to understand a poker player’s psychology when dealing with all these:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9D8qcavwZK

It’s worth noting that poker’s strategic depth comes from its numbers. The millions of possible hand combinations and outcomes mean no one, not even a computer-like mind, can calculate every scenario at the table. That’s why concepts like expected value and game theory optimal play are so valued – they provide a mathematical framework to navigate the chaos. Modern poker has seen an influx of players with a scientific approach: for instance, Chris Ferguson, who holds a PhD in computer science, famously applied game theory to win the World Series of Poker, exemplifying a new breed of math-savvy player. 

Yet poker has also preserved the importance of table intuition. In practice, the best poker players blend numbers with nuance. They know the odds cold, but also know when to bend them because of a strong read on an opponent. In a nutshell, the foundation of poker is built on numbers, but it takes human intuition to fully capitalize on them.

Sudoku and the Myth of Math

At first glance, a Sudoku grid filled with digits 1 through 9 looks like a math game. However, Sudoku is a logic puzzle at its core, not a math test. You could replace those numbers with letters or symbols and the challenge would be the same. There’s no addition, multiplication, or any calculation required – just pure reasoning. The goal is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each row, column, and 3×3 sub-box contains every symbol exactly once. To solve it, you don’t crunch numbers; instead, you apply logic, using a process of elimination and deduction. In fact, psychologists describe Sudoku as mainly a deductive reasoning game, since you systematically eliminate possibilities to arrive at the correct placement for each cell. 

It’s interesting that a puzzle so rooted in logic became a worldwide craze often associated with numbers. Sudoku’s history in fact underscores its non-mathematical nature. The puzzle was born as “Number Place” in an American puzzle magazine in 1979, invented by Howard Garns, a retired architect. It involved no arithmetic then, just as it doesn’t now. Sudoku truly caught fire globally in the mid-2000s when New Zealander Wayne Gould developed a computer program to generate puzzles and persuaded newspapers (starting with The Times of London in 2004) to publish them daily. The result was a Sudoku boom – within a couple of years, puzzle sections in newspapers worldwide were full of Sudoku grids, and an activity once niche became a daily habit for millions. None of these new Sudoku fans needed to brush up on math class; they dove in armed with a pencil, an eraser, and logical tenacity. 

Does Sudoku make you “smarter”? Perhaps not in the sense of doing algebra, but it does engage the brain in healthy ways. Fans often tout Sudoku and crosswords as daily mental gymnastics, and science is examining those claims. A 2019 study of over 19,000 older adults found that those who regularly did word or number puzzles had sharper cognitive function – equivalent to brains ten years younger than their actual age on certain tests.