Earlier this year more progress was made for a computer to attempt to beat a human at poker. But even with the latest advances in game technology and despite 1,000 years of computing time and simulating billions of hands of poker the program was at best able to take on a single player. The table of results alone took up 15 terabytes+ of computer storage!

Poker isn’t solvable the way chess or checkers are. The same can be said about Innovation.

Poker isn’t solvable the way chess or checkers are. The same can be said about Innovation. Both are a serious game of chance and you can improve your odds of winning if you engage with great care and leverage the expertise of innovation professionals.

“The Gambler” was released in November 1978 with the famous lyrics: “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em”. This also applies to finding the right ideas, experimenting, and choosing the ones that are worth further attention, evaluation and action.

Ideas, you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em!

Here are some Texas Hold’em Poker Strategies and interesting parallels with Ideation and Innovation best practices that help illustrate the point:

innovation-gamble-table

You cannot win every hand of poker; much like not every idea is worth betting on. But you have to be in it to win it!

There is one big difference between Innovation and Texas Hold’em worth highlighting. You can choose not to play poker but can your organization really afford not to innovate?