Poker is a game of managing risk. Those poker players who work hard, have a bit of talent and can manage risk effectively have a great chance of success. My research into poker leads me to believe that success at poker brings many relevant skills to the surface for any person seeking self fulfilment and achievement in any field. You can apply many facets of poker to everyday life. This gives poker more relevance than simply winning money and can equip you with excellent life skills. Improving your online poker game can be more than just mastering a very popular card game.

Gambling has a bad reputation. I have friends who tell me that when they are introduced to people as a professional poker player they are considered addicts who are too lazy to get a “real job”. These detractors of poker do not realise that property investors, stocks and shares investors and any entrepreneur that has ever lived has been a gambler. There is a risk in everything and good poker players are as good as businessmen at managing risk. Just as a businessman knows their market, poker players know how to play, who to play against and where their money is best placed for profit. Poker players are acutely aware that what they do is risky, giving them an advantage over other forms of investors like property entrepreneurs who do not think they will lose because “property always goes up”.

You should know through goal setting where you want to be in twelve months time. Using the principles of good bankroll management and to be frank, common sense, you should not risk all of your capital wealth to be a professional poker player. This is high risk strategy for poker and for life but some people do live this way. Learning the patience and discipline required for winning poker leads to more self control in situations away from the poker table. Anyone who can grind $100 into $1000 or rebound from $500 down to $60 and back to $500 again following good bankroll management is set for life in terms of emotional control. Poker can train you for all of these things if you learn poker carefully and diligently.

Dealing with the negative image poker has is also character building. I remember reading an article about a leading UK poker player in one of the national newspapers that said how worried his family was over his high stakes gambling. It made out that this person was about to lose everything and live on the street. As someone part of the poker community I know that this person is far from losing everything. They are established and fortunate enough to be sponsored and earn enough each month from poker away from the table to more than cover reasonably large cash game losses. While the losses look bad they had sustained over a short time, they had earned far more elsewhere from poker.

Emotional control that you must exercise at the poker table is necessary when dealing with opponents who want to put you on tilt and take you off your A game. Anyone who works knows that co-workers can be like this to a large degree in some cases. Self control and control of your emotions will positively impact your life in many ways aside of poker. Improving the way you deal with such behaviour is a great life skill.

Many areas of poker from the financial management and tilt control, patience and self awareness and control can be of great benefit to your everyday life. This article may not completely convince your family that your poker playing is beneficial to you but hopefully you can prove them wrong by becoming a winning poker player. Depending on your frequency and stakes you play people often waste far more money drinking in a pub three or more times per week than you wager at cards, it just looks worse to an outsider who worry you will get addicted.

Well done for reading articles such as this and approaching the game in the right way so that it can really help you in many ways from profits to self development.

By Malcolm Clarke

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