Games have always been considered key part of learning in business studies. Whether they are out door games like cricket, hockey, football where students learn team spirit, resource management and leadership skills or indoor games like chess, quizzes, plays etc. where students develop intelligence and emotional stability. Poker is the latest addition in the list and may be the most debatable and interesting one.
In fact few management schools have started arranging poker nights for the students with objective of developing key management skills. But how and which skills can be nourished by this game?
The kind of rules and format poker has, it is believed that it helps in incorporating negotiation, decision making, competitive analysis skills. Let’s have a look at what all elements of poker help the students –
1. Do not open your cards
Definitely a golden rule of poker and negotiations, do not be aggressive and open your all cards even if you the best in the table. Keep your aces to speak later and turning the game. Having a poker face always helps not only in poker also in business world.
2. Making bluffs at right time
The most important skill that you learn from poker is how and when to bluff, it’s really a key skill and helps you in winning a hand in which you have mediocre cards or bad cards. However too much bluffing is fatal and that is why many poker players loose. This game teaches you amount and timing of bluffs.
3. Understand your opponents
To win a poker game player need to know two aspects community cards and their opponents. Betting patterns, their body language speaks a lot and can give you a lot of hints about their next move or what they have in their hand. Similarly in business world to clinch any deal you need to understand your competitors thoroughly.
4. Develops risk taking ability
Another takeaway from this game is ability to take risk. When you have to bet on the basis of your own cards and your opponent’s combination then your every bet is a risk which is teaches you risk probabilities involved in every hand. Same goes with the life, a good business person understands better how, when and how much risk should be taken.
5. When to leave
In any situation a person must be aware of all the propositions that he can access and when he has to quit rather than just getting away with the situation. You can easily be part of this in any poker game and end up losing all your money when you don’t realize when you should quit.
These were some of the key takeaways from poker but there are many and that is why poker is getting more prominence is business studies. Recently Harward business school has incorporated poker in its regular curriculum which signifies its value. So if you a management person better to try your hands on poker and experience the change.