Running a business might feel a lot like playing a fast-paced skill-oriented game. To maximize your odds of success, you must plan ahead, do strategic planning, and make smart choices. Speaking of skill-oriented games, Poker is a classic card game based on strategy and the ability to detect verbal and nonverbal cues.
That’s the reason some of the world’s best CEOs and entrepreneurs are head over heels in love with it. A poker is a tool that reshapes your personality and helps you shine like a diamond, so it’s more than just one of the best money-earning games available online.
To make things clearer, we’ll go through some of the most important business skills that poker teaches to its players. Many professional poker players have claimed that the game has helped them learn how to deal with pressure situations effectively and make quality decisions quickly.
1- Poker can make you a better boss
Businesses prosper when diverse types of people are inspired to work together towards a common goal. Doesn’t it appear to be simple? The truth is more complicated. Business communication is a taught talent that requires a surprising degree of psychological understanding. Here, your poker skills come in handy.
Successful poker players quickly learn to adapt to the gaming and behavioural traits of other players at the table. You must not only know how to understand the mindset of others, but you must also be able to watch their body language to predict how they will react to others’ actions. By observing your opponent’s moves on the Poker table, you can ascertain whether he is bluffing or holding a strong hand.
Similarly, at your workplace, you can easily decode the body language, behaviour, and facial expressions of employees or potential candidates for a job opening to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The observation skills you learn on the Poker tables can help you a lot in building a solid people management framework for your organization.
2- Learn endurance and deal with pressure
A tournament teaches you endurance and how to deal with pressure in every way. An offline or online Poker tournament begins with a big number of participants. As the game progresses, players start getting eliminated. Only those players who play their natural game and maintain their composure, reach the final positions.
Similarly, hundreds of firms are launched every day by eager entrepreneurs. CEOs who are willing to work non-stop for days, understanding that the possibility for large gains comes with the hard reality that you could lose it all, are the ones who become successful.
3- Learn to measure risk
In both Poker and business, you’re constantly weighing the possibility of profit and loss and deciding when to make the right move. Both need quick calculations, judgements, and strong beliefs. Experienced Poker players, like smart entrepreneurs, will only make the move if the odds are stacked heavily in their favour. Otherwise, you’re just an adrenaline junkie, and you end up being not profitable.
4- Manage cash flow
Business executives must practice discipline in managing their finances & building a strong capital, much as Poker players must manage a specific bankroll to sustain their games. It’s critical in both cases to never put more money on the line than you can afford to lose. Establish clear objectives, set spending limits, and invest with caution.
5- Taking calculated risks
You have to take ‘calculated’ risks to achieve success, both at Poker tables as well as in real life. Risks are part of any investment you make however when it is calculated then returns are double as potential threats (if any) are nullified. This is true for poker as well where the return on investment depends on the smart choices you make on the poker table
6- Reading your competitors
Anticipating your opponents’ risk tolerance is important to ensure choosing the best Poker hands to play. Furthermore, understanding their strengths and limitations will go a long way toward assisting you in effectively countering them. In business too, you must do your homework to get into your competitor’s mind, and only then will you be able to keep one step ahead of them.
7- Social Skills
People, coworkers, clients, consumers, investors, shareholders, and more are all important in the business sector. You must be able to properly interact with them as well as read between the lines.
Poker is the best way to learn how to hide your ‘tells’ (inadvertently revealing information with your physical or verbal actions) and read people’s intentions and thoughts. In the world of business, you have to decipher your competitors’ actions to determine their shortcomings and discover the best way to gain an advantage over them.
