Winning players: The winning players he's talking about exist at every level. At the small time level, they're often "prop" players, sponsored by the casino to generate action where the floor manager wants it.
Poker is strongly negative-sum. The venue has to be paid for. There isn't enough sponsorship to go around to everyone, and there definitely isn't any for the small time.
Creativity: spending a lot of time practicing something isn't the opposite of creativity. I find that creativity is simply recombining things you already know how to do. There aren't many fields where someone is simply "a natural" at a very high level; it almost always comes from practice.
Poker is strongly negative-sum. The venue has to be paid for. There isn't enough sponsorship to go around to everyone, and there definitely isn't any for the small time.
Creativity: spending a lot of time practicing something isn't the opposite of creativity. I find that creativity is simply recombining things you already know how to do. There aren't many fields where someone is simply "a natural" at a very high level; it almost always comes from practice.