Although poker used to be perceived as a fun hazardous game, now it is a time-honored concept that can develop numerous skills and make us smarter.
Consequently, it is not surprising that there is an increasing number of poker rooms (like for example BetOnline) which we can find enlisted and selected here, where we can play and develop our poker game skills.
The popularity of online poker has grown to such an extent that games are widely analyzed and studied by savvy stock investors. Moreover, strategies that can be adopted while playing are extended to investor training programs offered by professional trainers.
Truth be told, besides the possibility of winning money, poker offers far more to its devoted players. It can significantly develop numerous skills that will not only be useful during games, but also in every day’s life.
1. Poker improves cognitive skills
First, poker assists in developing mental intelligence and cognitive skills. It has been proven that playing on regular basis can improve:
- attention,
- concentration,
- memory,
- coping under pressure,
- solving problem skills.
Therefore, poker can help us stay more focused on tasks despite distractions, reason ideas and solve problems or quickly recall information from the past.
Such skills are not only useful during poker games but can be an asset in business or at work as we are able to finish tasks more efficiently and be able to memorize huge pieces of information.
Moreover, we become better-organized people that know how to effectively organize their work to get every task done by the deadline and can solve problems arising by themselves.
2. Poker impacts analytical thinking
What is more, poker is known for being a game of intelligence that impacts analytical thinking, decision-making and significantly improves our negotiation skills by teaching us maintaining emotional control or playing multiple hands.
Maintaining emotional control
Poker improves our patience, restraint and peace of mind which allows us to analyze strengths or weaknesses of the negotiating party and opportunities or threats we have ahead of us.
While playing in a poker room of our choice, like for example BetOnline poker room, we will face various opponents and we will have to analyze our position carefully in order to win.
Playing multiple hands
Poker players need to know that the winning card comes at the most convenient time, so they must bet multiple hands at the same table to win more. The same happens in negotiations when we should restrain from investing all capital in one company and should always weigh the risk and the profit before putting in all our funds.
3. Poker teaches patience
For poker players, patience is a key skill to have to become successful. Even if they must fold hands, they are not very concerned about money they lose as they are aware that another opportunity will come. And another hand with better chances of winning is going to appear in the future.
Therefore, the best thing we can do as poker players, is just to wait for this opportunity and better hand instead of putting money on worthless hands. We may face such events notoriously and, the more often it happens, the more patient and calculative we become. Both on the poker table and in real life.
4. Poker teaches discipline
What is more, facing different situations that poker players need to resolve, increases their discipline. Normally gamblers tend to panic when they lose money, try their best to win back their capital as quickly as possible and, sometimes, they lose all they have.
In poker, no matter how much players lose, they need to keep their emotions in check and cannot allow them to interfere with their overall tactics, strategy and goal what enhances their discipline. Such skill is extremely helpful in every day’s life as it allows us to get things done and get closer to our life goals.
5. Poker teaches how to deal with loss
Although a lot of poker novices want to believe that once they kick off with online poker playing, they will be successful right way, truth be told, the road to the poker success is often long and winding.
Therefore, once we start playing poker, we need a lot of persistence and losing should become something we get familiar with.
Moreover, no matter how skillful we are, there will be days when the odds will be against us and there will be nothing much we will be able to do about it. The most important thing is to start perceiving losing as an integral part of a game.
Such approach to losing will not only impact our poker games but will also put an imprint on our every day’s life and teach us to cope with failure in real life. Losing is an inevitable part of everyone’s existence – sometimes we succeed and other times we fall short, but we need to remember that it is what it is and deal with it.
6. Poker teaches to read people
Finally, poker is an excellent game that allows us to learn how to read people. Poker is a highly interactive games where we must read between lines and always be on guard as the most skillful poker players can easily trick us.
Therefore, to be a good poker player, we need to read our opponents all the time. We need to be able to recognize both physical and emotional signs that tell us what our competitors may be thinking or is going to do. And, truth be told, the more we play, the better at recognizing some behavioral patterns we are.
The skill of reading people comes at handy not exclusively in poker as, in general, human beings can be sometimes highly complex and difficult to deal with. Reading actions, gestures or facial expressions may facilitate us to recognize their emotions and relate with them.
Moreover, such skill is also essential when it comes to business and leaders. Leaders need to deal with different types of people on regular basis and, once they know how to read people, they can recognize their intentions and differentiate whether a given person is honest or not.
Summing up, poker should never be perceived only as a fun hazardous game, because it provides its devoted players with far more value than pure money and entertainment.
Playing poker is known for improving our cognitive skills making us more focused and organized, impacting our analytical thinking allowing us to solve problems better, teaching patience, discipline and dealing with loss and, last but not least, allowing us to read people. And all these skills are extremely helpful in business, work, and family life making us smarter.
