Do you know what playing poker games and running a business have in common? Money!
Running a business and playing poker aren’t for the faint-hearted because you need to take calculated risks and be shrewd when making decisions. Like in poker, there are no shortcuts to achieving business success. It would be best if you worked hard, played by the rules, and were willing to change your tactics when things weren’t going your way. While you can get all the theoretical knowledge about business and poker by reading about them, the hard lessons are learned on the field or at the poker table.
Most people view poker as entertainment, but professional players earn a living playing poker. It is a skill-based game where players need to learn the rules, sharpen their skills, improve their concentration power and beat their opponents. You can apply these skills to take your business venture to the next level.
So, the next time you play an online poker game, remember that you are learning skills to run your business successfully. Read on to see our list of some business tactics and skills you can learn from playing poker games.
One-Up Your Observation Skills and Improve Your Accuracy in Reading Your Competitors
When you are at the poker tables, you need to accurately anticipate your opponents’ affinity toward risks. A precise judgment, along with statistically correct poker calculations, will help you decide the best moves you need to make. Also, when you know the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors, you can go a long way in countering them.
Similarly, it is crucial to conduct due diligence to comprehend your competition and find out their strengths and weaknesses when running a business. If you can judge them correctly, you’ll always be one step ahead of them.
Learn The Art Of Being Process-Oriented Instead Of Result-Oriented
In poker and business, you may have committed no mistake and yet you may still lose. When playing poker, you might have a perfect hand and have studied material from some of the best poker training sites and still fail to beat your opponents. That’s just the nature of the game. The same things might happen when you are running a business. Even if you do everything right, you may fail to achieve your goals. That’s just life, sometimes.
However, this problem is short-term. It is about getting the fundamentals right to succeed in the future. If you fail once, you need to try again and try to keep making the right decisions in the long run. It is essential to prevent yourself from making reckless decisions because such choices won’t keep you on your A-game.
Therefore, focus on the process and hope for the best. Results will follow if you are trying your best to do everything right.
There are No Point Chasing Losses
If you have lost several hands in a row, it might tempt you to keep playing because you want to recover your reputation or loss. However, this line of thinking isn’t productive, and it will impede your judgment. It may even turn out to be quite harmful.
The same applies in business. It would be best not to let your earlier results cloud your judgment. You must assess and analyze the situation before making your move.
Learn To Be Unpredictable So Your Competitors Cannot Read You
You need to compete with people of different experience levels and skillsets in business and poker. Your competitors will easily read you and predict your moves if you keep repeating the same strategies. It is essential to appear unpredictable, so you can surprise your opponents and take control of the game and your business.
Excellent Money Management Skills
Managing money is one of the first things you will learn as a poker player or as a business owner. Poker players need to have a dedicated bankroll, so the swings and variance they’ll undoubtedly experience are always supported. Similarly, a business person must choose the best investment options to ensure maximum results.
If You Quit, It Doesn’t Mean You Have Accepted Defeat
In poker, especially in tournaments without rebuys, players sometimes need to fold their cards because it means preserving their remaining chip stack. Here, quitting doesn’t mean that they are giving up. They hope to return with better odds of winning (i.e., “finding a better spot”) and don’t want to lose money or their tournament life.
Similarly, businesses and entrepreneurs sometimes need to step back to save themselves from (further) losses. They need to study the market from a distance and make informed decisions. Therefore, you must not view quitting as an acceptance of defeat. On the contrary, it means that you will bounce back with better strategies.
Learn To Wait For The Right Opportunity
Speaking of “finding a better spot”, it is essential to take your time to make the right move in business and poker. Nervousness and excitement might lead you to make wrong decisions that you may regret later. Since you cannot determine the next moves of your opponents or competitors, you must observe them. You must cautiously collect information about their weaknesses and strengths. Then, make a move when the opportunity is right.
Poker Can Teach You Discipline
Discipline is key to success in business and poker. The more poker hands you play, the more disciplined you’ll become and work towards your goal with complete determination. It is very important to track and monitor your performance regularly to identify your limitations and find the areas that need improvement.
Summing Up
The strategies and tactics you learn from playing poker games can be applied to take your business to the next level. So, start playing poker, and if you pay attention and hone your skills at the felt, chances are that you’ll also probably get better at managing money, making tough and quick decisions, observing your competitors, etc.
