Playing poker without looking at your cards... and other examples of mastery

Ok, ok... The title's a tad melodramatic. I just want to point out that various individuals who are masters of their profession talk something like this:

I saw in TV once a top poker pro who said that if you can play poker without looking at your cards, then you will be successful. The point he was trying to point is to play your opponent, instead of what you have. If you can read that your opponent is weak, and you push, then you can win a good pot. If you can read your opponent is strong then no matter how much you posture, he'll probably is going to call, and you're better off cutting your losses.

Similarly, I heard from a master conversationalist "the material you use does not matter much in captivating your audience." I got his point right away. You can walk , for example, to a group of people in a party and if you got the skills, you can captivate them with little to do with material.

Robert Kiyosaki also mentioned in one of his books about making money without having money. But just doing deals and matching buyers to sellers. He once made 50k for a few hours of work and no money from his own hatching up a deal.

For me personally, this is one of the most intrinsically rewarding aspects of mastery of a field. I play poker competitively and program software professionally. And when I'm in a state of flow, it's like I can do stuff because I knew what to do, and it had nothing to do with what cards I had or with what programming languages I know.

As I learn new fields of study, I just hope I get to that level of mastery in them...