We’ve all heard of the negative impacts of poker but the game can have an overwhelmingly positive impact on lives too. Given the academic and social aspects of the game, when it comes to poker, there’s a lot to learn. Keep reading to find out how poker can be good for you!
Develops Logical Thinking & Decision Making
For many average joes across the globe, decision-making can be stressful if not near impossible. Making important life decisions can leave a weighty pressure on those with little experience in the practice.
Skilled poker players have a lifetime of practice in making important decisions with speed and efficiency. What’s more, they don’t just ‘wing it’. Instead, they think out their moves using keen logic. For instance, say a player is close to losing a tough game. If they want to stay in the game then they have to work fast to out-manoeuvre their opponents. Alternatively, they can choose to cut their losses and bow out of the hand. This is a tough decision to make when the stakes are high and the pot is big. Nevertheless, a good poker player is faced with scenarios like this regularly. They’re familiar with the process of weighing their options and making swift decisions with a cool and logical head. Carrying this skill into every day life can help people make important, well thought out decisions with confidence.
Improves Mathematic Ability
Mathematics is one of the core pillars of poker and crops up regularly in everyday life. Each game consists of math challenges such as calculating odds and probability. In poker, mathematics is a great tool for analysing multiple situations and thus, informing your decision-making process. In terms of everyday life, this form of mathematics is used to predict several scenarios. These include routine elements of life such as traffic, politics and even the weather! What’s more, if you have an interest in investments, you would use probability to assess how likely it is that a certain investment will pay off. For example, you might determine that there is a 1% chance that the stock of company A will increase 100x during the upcoming year. Based on this probability, you would then decide how much of your net worth to invest in the stock. Being adept at calculating probabilities isn’t as surefire as predicting the future but it’s the closest we mere mortals will ever get.
In a poker scenario, players practice various forms of mathematics regularly. When an opponent places a wager and you’re on a draw, it’s time to start thinking in terms of odds and probability. Should you continue on and chance that you’ll complete your hand or fold and let your rival take the pot? When a player knows the odds of them drawing a winning hand against their opponent, this decision becomes a lot easier to make.
Teaches Focus & Patience
If you’re addicted to scrolling on social media, then chances are you’ve noticed a significant decline in your ability to stay focused. With the constant need to refresh our screens comes an inability to remain still and patient. Poker can help with this!
If you want to embrace success in poker, patience is needed. Whether it’s waiting for the right hand to come along or holding steady and building the pot when the perfect hand is in your grasp, poker teaches players to act against impulsive decisions. When poker players decide to fold, they don’t just consider the current pot that’s set to be lost. Instead, they’re focused on staying in the game to win the next pot, when their odds of winning are better. Patience is knowing this hand will come and avoiding making any rash decisions that’ll prevent you from being there to take advantage of it. The more a player develops this skill, the easier it’ll be to be patient and think strategically - resulting in more fruitful decisions. Who couldn’t benefit from having that skill in their arsenal?
Improves Emotional Intelligence
No one can be a winner every day of their lives. No matter how smart, talented or successful you are, failure can swing around just as quickly and unexpectedly as wins. Accepting this and dealing with it graciously is a valuable skill to see you through life. In poker, even the most proficient player can be dealt a hand that’ll lead them to defeat. What matters isn’t that they lose but rather how they lose.
The best poker players know how to pinpoint the reason for their failure, learn from it and then improve their game. They don’t spiral, dwell on the loss or see it as a sign that their efforts in the game have been wasted. Instead, they take a far more pragmatic response and use their failure as a tool for self-improvement. Any player who explodes in the face of loss, won’t last long in the game.
Develops Adaptability
Are you someone who stresses at the thought of change? Do you watch the same tv shows on repeat because you get a warm sense of comfort knowing how it ends? If so, then chances are you could benefit from strengthening your ability to adapt. The fact is that the modern world is rapidly changing every day. Be it politics, technology or culture, if you can’t quickly adapt you’ll be cast aside and marked as a relic of the past. If you’re happy there then great! However, if you want to be able to quickly tackle the curve balls life will invariably throw at you then poker could be the answer.
We’ve already outlined above that when faced with a difficult scenario poker teaches people to respond calmly and rationally. It can also teach them to change and adapt their strategy when faced with fresh data. This ability to swiftly change course when faced with a sudden obstacle is a skill that can benefit a player’s everyday life. Instead of being crippled by an unfortunate surprise and fear of the unknown, poker players know how to act fast and make confident decisions. While sometimes these moves don’t pay off, they don’t punish themselves twice by agonising over the changing landscape of their game.
Increases Social Ability
Ultimately, poker is a social game - that’s why it works so well in the casual and social casino landscape and why KamaGames works so hard to build genuine human communities in our apps. After all, it’s impossible to play poker by yourself and just slightly boring playing with only one other person. To have a truly thrilling game, you need a group of people to interact with - be it online or in-person!
Whether you’re practising casual conversation at the tables or using chit-chat to size other players up, this activity will benefit you. After all, we spend every day communicating with the outside world in some form or another and having a high standard of social skills can improve every area of your life. What’s more, through this communication at the tables, players make and maintain long-term friendships through a shared hobby. This means that you’ll always have fun at the tables when playing with friends, significantly improving your overall mental health and wellbeing.