Mind Games: 4 Ways Poker Can Make You Sharper, Better Person

In the computer-dominated, mostly automated world we live in each one of us is granted an insane amount of free time; so much of it that our ancestors would hardly be able to conceive of. In this scenario many people are faced with the difficult question of what they should spend their spare time on and if there is something out there, we can call it a hobby or a leisurely activity, that will not only entertain you, but keep you brain as sharp as a slashermovie weapon.

Well, we have a suggestion that may sound unusual at first glance, but those who are more familiar with it would probably give it two thumbs up; we are referring to the game of poker. Are you still us? Good. The best part is that you don't even need to have a deck of playing cards or a set of chips to play with, because in the aforementioned computer-dominated world, playing poker is as easy as reaching for your smartphone, tablet or PC to download an app or just log into your favorite website.
A very good hand of poker

Poker is a game where there’s little room for luck despite what the unitiated tend to infer. Poker is all about the strategy and, while you can indeed try to brute-force it, the most likely outcome of the steamroll strategy is failure. Therefore, your best bet (pun intended) is to learn the ins and outs of the game so that you’ll be able to handle them like second nature and use them to your advantage.

If you have no idea where to start, online poker tutorials offer exactly what you need to get an initial feel for the game. It is highly recommended to begin with a list of the most common poker terms and their meaning. The access to the poker vocabulary will open many doors and put you in the best shape to move on to the next step and learn the much-dreaded poker rules, from which it’ll be progressively clearer that poker is a thinking game as much as chess is.

The thinking nature of poker is proven by the fact that, before you even realize it, the skills developed along the way of the learning process will all of a sudden click. At that point, whether you’re sitting at a high-stakes table in the Monte Carlo or playing a game at your local poker room, you’ll be delighted to reap some great benefits connected with game along with the natural enjoyment that
comes with it:

• Poker helps develop good math skills
  

Counting cards is a basic but essential aspect of the poker learning curve, but it’s really the number crunching connected with keeping track of your available funds, working out how much the next hand could pay out or how close the other players are to folding that will make you feel a vague nostalgia at the thought of your arithmetic teacher and her efforts to squeeze into your skull those numbers that the philosophers have long considered the languageof the universe. On a less profound note, you will rejoice at the figures mechanically surging to your mind as you're casually tossing groceries into your shopping cart at the supermarket, or when you suddenly realize that doing your taxes no longer represents a dreary practice but a stimulating exercise.

• Poker stimulates your memory and analytical thinking skills
  

Are you the kind of person who is constantly mortified over where the house keys might be? Does your work day become a seemingly unending torture session because you're not sure if you properly locked up the house before leaving and have no way to leave and check? They're probably in your pocket anyway, but the point is that in order to get good at poker, you have to be able to keep track of a ton of variables, like: is what you have in your hand better than what everyone else has? How close are you to folding out? Can you afford to go all out with those two jacks, a one of spades, a three of clubs, and a two of hearts, or will the guy across the table call you out on your bluff and take you for all you're worth? Thinking in terms of loss and gain, what you can do, so you are able to maximize the benefits borne from your decisions, that’s one of the keys to poker success.

• Poker teaches patience and how to stay cool under pressure
  

Speaking of going all out with a bluff and a bad hand, it's probably a good idea to hold off on that and sit down, breathe and watch. Poker, much like life itself, requires you to make decisions under pressure whose ramifications may not be immediately apparent but that will prove crucial in the long term. Therefore, sit, down, quietly analyze your odds and more importantly don't rush your decision under any circumstance. Rushing into things usually leads to stitches on one’s forehead and a lot of regret, so think carefully before your next move and remember: good things come to those who wait.

• It helps you to learn how to read people

 

Have you ever heard of the expression “poker face”? It means trying to hide your emotions so that other players can't tell what kind of hand you have by the expression on your face. It goes both ways: other players will use the technique on you and you'll have to decide on the fly if your opponent does indeed have a better hand than you or if you have the upper hand in the game.

 Learning to read people's body language is an essential skill to have; it can help in many areas of your everyday life, from the workplace to the more relationships with friends and partners. Believe it or not, some try to find the answer on how to winfriends and influence people in books, but you won’t need to, thanks to one of the most productive hobbies one can have.