Four Life Lessons a Game of Poker Can Teach You
When it comes to improving your life, lessons can be found everywhere.
You might learn from other people’s experiences in a face-to-face chat or an autobiography. You might find the messages within a feature film resonate with you, or learn about self-care from a website like ours. You might even pick up a few valuable lessons by playing poker.
That might sound absurd; how on earth can a game like poker teach you anything about life? Isn’t it all bluffing, misdirection and chance? Whilst that is part of the game, it isn’t an exhaustive list of the skills it demands or the lessons you can learn.
Here are four lessons you can learn from poker players.
Life is a game of skill and luck
As alluded to in the introduction, poker is a game of chance and luck. You might be holding pocket kings (two kings from the initial deal), which is a hand likely to win 90% of rounds. However, if someone else has pocket aces or the flop isn’t kind, then your luck is out and there’s nothing you can do. However, when learning to play poker, you begin to understand it is also a game of skill. That might be bluffing or it might be working out your chance of winning. Whatever it is, there are steps you can take to mitigate the risk of bad luck. Life is the same: if your luck is down, don’t pity yourself; simply put whatever skills you have into practice to improve your situation.
You can’t win every time
Going back to those pocket kings, nine times out of ten, you’d expect to win that hand; however, the next deal could see you handed a two and a seven off suit, which is arguably the worst hand you can get from a deal. If that’s the case, most players fold and start again. In life, you can’t get every job you go for or win every fight you find yourself in. Defeat is never the end; it’s just a chance to reset and go again on the next deal.
Make decisions based on facts
Sometimes in life, you’re asked to make a big decision, and you go with your gut. You might let all of your better judgement override the choice simply because you feel something is right. Sadly, that isn’t always the best approach, and a successful poker player knows that. They usually weigh their chances of winning a hand by calculating the pot odds, which helps them work out how likely they are to win a hand. That will dictate whether they risk chips, and whilst it might not be exciting or glamorous, it is sound and sensible advice.
Always gather feedback
What is feedback? Plain and simple, feedback is advice to evaluate a situation in which you’ve been involved where things could have gone better. In poker, the community often helps itself, with newer players quizzing those around the table for advice on how they did. Were there any obvious tells they exhibited? Did they play a good hand badly? This advice helps them develop as a player and also applies to real life. We don’t expect you to ask every former partner where you went wrong in the relationship, but it does pay to listen to feedback. The key takeaway is not to wear that feedback as a millstone around your neck but to use it to fine-tune aspects of your life and become better and whatever it is you wish to be.