How can poker skills help you in business
How to Become a Better Entrepreneur Through Poker
Improving your poker does take a lot of work and effort, as you must learn a great deal about this card game.
People think mastering online poker is as easy as reading a list of the rules and playing a few games. While you may get the hang of how the game works, understanding the nuances and unique skills required to succeed at poker takes time.
The positive for people who do put in the time to improve their poker game is that such skills are transferable. While you benefit from improving at poker and winning money when you play with family, friends, or strangers online, there are other advantages.
Many of the skills necessary to be great at poker are also important for entrepreneurs. If you own a small business or aspire to have your company in the near future, improving your poker game and learning specific skills can come in handy.
Below is a rundown of a few skills that will help you become a better poker player and entrepreneur.
Understand Risk and Reward
One of the most important lessons you learn from regularly playing poker is to evaluate risk and reward. Each time cards are dealt in Texas hold ’em, you wonder whether the hand that you are holding is good enough to beat the other players on the table.
You must assess their hypothetical hands, the cards in front of you, the cards unfolding on the table as that round plays out, and how much money everyone has in front of them. These assessments allow you to evaluate whether betting a specific amount is a risk worth taking and if the potential rewards are good enough.
Such thinking becomes very useful in business. Even though you are not making risk vs. reward decisions every few minutes, you do have to make tough decisions at specific moments. You may be deciding between two suppliers, choosing an ideal location for your new business, or contemplating whether to expand after a successful first two years at one site.
Learn Endurance and How to Handle Pressure
Playing poker is not about being incredible at reading other people or having terrific luck. While you do need elements of those two skills, the best poker players are the ones who can handle pressure and can last the longest.
A game of poker tests your endurance. While you would not associate the word endurance with sitting at a table and playing a card game, the patience and diligence required in poker are tough to maintain after a while.
By improving your endurance for staying focused and on task and learning how to remain calm in the most pressurized of moments, you will have an easier time as a business owner. If there is ever a stressful situation or a long day where a lot of work must get done, you will be able to remain on top of everything.
Differentiate Skill vs. Gambling
There is a difference between skill and gambling, and this differentiation is one that you can only learn by playing a game such as poker. You will have hands where you took a blind gamble, bet a lot of money, and ended up winning. Then you will have moments when you carefully study the expressions of your opponent and deduce whether they were bluffing or not.
Understanding when you won as a result of skill and when you were triumphant because lady luck smiled on you is so important as a business owner. Too many entrepreneurs begin to think every decision they take is correct because they get lucky a few times.
Become a Better Boss
Evolving as a poker player is not only about knowing what set of cards beats another set or knowing how to bluff. You must also get better at communicating with people, co-existing with them at a table, and even becoming their friend after the game finishes.
Poker helps build relationships, and such a skill is invaluable when you are a business owner. Running a company is more than having business acumen or being good at making a product. You must also know how to deal with different personalities. Only then can you extract the potential of your employees each day.
