Poker an exciting card game that serves as a great teacher. It not only entertains you but also teaches you key life lessons. It is a mental exercise that tests one’s analytical, mathematical, and interpersonal abilities. The game also tests one’s mental and physical endurance, develops patience and and emotional control besides improving one’s decision-making and observation skills.
According to the six-time WSOP champion Daniel Negreanu, picking the right table to play is key to winning in poker. “A combination of work away from the table, study, and practice is just as important as actually playing poker and getting the experience that you do at the felt.” – Daniel Negreanu
Well, it can be tempting to play high stakes table or compete in a big tournament with the best of the best, but ‘can you handle it?’ is the question you have to ask to yourself. It also applies in life as well. Picking the right career path, business, or anything else in life needs to be decided based on your personality and skills. You will always have to decide things in life based on your skills and capacity.
Talking about the lessons we can learn from poker, Adda52 reg Neeraj ‘ns12pathak’ Sharma said, “Patience, Perseverance and Emotional Control is what I learned so far from the game of poker.”
Another reg on the site, Suraj “Mosfet” Dixit, said , “Adjusting actions, getting more flexible according to situations and improving patience level” are some of the important lessons we learn from poker.
Throwing some light on what poker teaches us in real life, Anjan“Qubit” Ghosh who often plays the game online on Adda52, said, “Success doesn’t come overnight , it’s not sprint but a marathon like life.”
To break it down for you, we have identified the following positive impacts of poker in our life!
1#Discipline
Poker players understand the fact that they cannot win every hand. Many times, one might think he or she is ahead, but then the harsh river card alters everything and all the equity disappears. When you slip into a trap like this, you should be able to make a disciplined fold on the spot. Yes, you should be open to releasing all the hands that are likely to be beaten. Often in life, we believe we are invincible and begin to take things for granted. Poker teaches us that any circumstance can alter at any time, and we can never be too cautious in our actions. We must sometimes let things go.
2#Decision Making
Poker trains your mind and enables you to make better decisions. According to Annie Duke, an American poker pro and author, “Approaching decisions in a probabilistic way, getting help from people who offer different viewpoints, exercises to get ourselves to see decisions from other perspectives, learning the right lessons from outcomes — these are all habits of mind that will improve our decision quality.” Poker constantly pushes you to make complex decisions, and irrespective of whether a decision makes you win or lose, you are always improving your decision-making skills in life.
It doesn’t matter what cards you are dealt, but how you play them is all up to you, and your success is dependent on it. Success and failure in life are also determined by how you make decisions.
3#Emotional Maturity
At the poker table, we go through a roller-coaster of emotions, including excitement, worry, anxiety, and anger. The game teaches players how to hide their emotions as and when necessary. The reason for this is so opponents cannot read your face or thinking; otherwise, they will get a clue about your cards. Keeping a “poker face” at the table is, after all, a virtue. It is always a good idea to assess your emotions and learn how to regulate them, which will benefit you in life and poker.
4#Patience & Perseverance
Poker is a game in which you must sit for long hours to win and boost your bankroll. To have a winning session at the end of the day, it requires a lot of patience mixed with good decisions. Despite discouragement or hardship, your consistent efforts keep you going in this fast-paced and impatient world. Being patient and preserver lets you to take chances when the odds are in your favour.
5#Observation Skills
Playing poker also allows you to observe individuals, their stacks, attitudes, and moves in various scenarios. This is feasible because, during the game, you continually read individuals around the table as well as monitor their faces and body movements to have an edge over them. These skills may also be employed in real-life circumstances, and you will gain immensely from them.
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