Poker has been around for 1000s of years with different guises and it’s a popular pastime for many. Anyone can play poker, and most people find that their skills improve over time. These skills not only come in handy when playing poker but in all walks of life as it can improve a range of cognitive skills from concentration to risk assessment.
There’s little doubt that poker is a fantastic game and the fact it’s been around for so long is a testament to that. So let’s look at the benefits of playing poker, you will be surprised by the findings because the answers are not what you would expect.
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Poker Makes You A Math Expert
Playing poker is a great way to brush up your math skills. The best poker players are good at math, and the longer they play, the better their math becomes.
Players can count cards, work out the odds to rule out particular possibilities, and help make better decisions; every opportunity to practice mental maths is a boost to you and your skills. Mental maths comes in handy in everyday life, working out the interest on loans, trading on the stock market, negotiating a better salary, or even just working out if you’ve been short-changed in the pub.
Poker Improves Logical Thinking
Poker players always look hard at their options; studying any situation to determine if the pros are more significant than the cons. Logical thinkers can also reason deductively, analyze a situation, and make a sensible decision based on a rational conclusion using analytical reasoning skills.
A poker player never makes decisions based on a gut feeling or emotion. Poker is a strategy game, and the skills you learn can enhance other areas of your life. Read on to discover some of the other benefits of playing poker.
Playing Poker Helps Your Patience
Developing patience and the ability to wait until the time is right is not easy. In this day and age of instant gratification learning to be patient pays dividends and benefits the player allowing more time to make the right decision.
Patience and logical thinking is a winning formula in both life and poker. There’s also a side effect of enhanced gratification enabled by having to wait for something and appreciating it more when you get it.
Poker Instils Discipline
Poker enhances and installs discipline as players are faced with situations that test their resolve, learn not to make rash decisions, and practice logical thinking is a discipline in itself.
It takes discipline to play with your head and not your heart, invoking logical thinking and patience when you’re on a losing streak, and it takes skill along with the discipline to get you back on track.
Let’s Talk About Skill
The stakes are often high when you’re playing poker, and people tend to panic if they’re losing and try to win back their money quickly, even when the odds are against them, it takes skill, discipline, and patience to get back on track.
In poker, no matter how much you lose, you will learn to keep your emotions in check and not allow it to affect your decision making or overall tactics – providing you with the skills needed to take into other areas of life.
Playing Poker Improves Concentration
The power of concentration is an underrated superpower; being able to concentrate is often the difference between success and failure. Athletes work extremely hard to keep their concentration levels high to avoid making mistakes that could change the game completely.
The more you play poker and put your learned skills into play, the better you become at keeping your head and making the best choices for you and your life.
Poker Enables Better Risk Assessment
Just like poker, business is all about taking calculated risks, those who can accurately assess risks get paid handsomely. Having the knowledge of risk assessment in poker means you’re able to make better choices in business and your personal life.
Risk assessment is just another way of saying “is it worth it”? Poker players can answer this question quicker than others and they nearly always get it spot on.
Poker Helps You To Deal With Loss
No matter how successful you are, there will be days when things won’t go your way. Dealing with setbacks, failure, or loss is a life skill that playing poker can enhance.
Just like losing a hand in poker, failing in life is inevitable – you win some, and you lose some, the trick is to accept failure, learning from the experience, and make changes to improve and move on.
Even the most successful people will tell you how they failed at different times and in different ways before they succeeded, every failure is a learning opportunity, a chance to change your fortune based on what you’ve learned.
Now you’re set for life! You have great math skills, lots of patients, you can think logically, you have discipline and concentration along with an ability to assess risks, and most of all you are in control of your life. Well done, you’re a winner.
If you are interested in even more entertainment-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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