Poker is such a great and interesting game that there is no surprise there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who enjoy playing it. Whether online or in a live setting, people from all walks of life have helped make poker the global phenomenon it is today.

There are many reasons why someone may become fascinated with the game. Although money-making potential and its gambling aspect are what attracts a majority of the players, there is so much more to poker. Learning how to play and sitting down for a session every now and again can be quite beneficial to you for a number of reasons.

 

1. Poker will help you develop your analytical skills

Once you start to really understand poker, you’ll see that this is fundamentally a game of numbers. All the luck in the world can’t help a player who doesn’t understand the mathematical fundamentals of poker such as counting their outs or figuring out their pot odds.

Developing these skills will definitely help improve your poker winnings but you’ll see their benefits in other areas of your life as well. Learning how to think analytically and approach problems from a well-founded, mathematical point of view is something you’ll be able to apply in countless everyday situations away from the felt.

 

2. You can make new friends through poker

As mentioned, poker gathers people from all walks of life. Whether you play in a casino or try to make your way up online, you’ll encounter many different characters along the way. Just like in any other social setting, you won’t become friends with most of them but you’ll likely meet a few that you have some things in common.

Although there is still a stigma surrounding poker, especially in some parts of the world, you should keep an open mind. As long as you treat other people in your games with respect and kindness, you’ll have an opportunity to make new human connections and this has nothing to do with how good at the game any of you might be.

 

3. You’ll become better at reading people

Although live tells are often overrated, paying attention to what your opponents do or say at a table is an important part of poker. As you gain more experience, you’ll become better at understanding what kind of emotions is hidden behind certain physical actions or facial expressions.

These skills can come in very handy in other situations, whether in personal or professional life. You’ll become better at figuring out if someone isn’t being honest with you or if there’s something they might be hiding. Even if you don’t think you need these skills in your life right now, you never know what the future brings.

 

4. Poker will make you more competitive

Even if you only play the game for fun and don’t care that much about results, poker will still help you develop the competitive spirit. You may not think so right now but once you’re shown a few bluffs and have lost a few pots that were rightfully yours, your outlook will being to change.

You’ll develop the desire to become better than your opponents or, at the very least, hold your own against them. This healthy dose of competitive spirit will help prepare you for other challenges waiting ahead.

 

5. Poker teaches you patience

There is no other game out there that can provide you with better lessons in patience than poker. You might think that chess requires a great deal of patience, for example, but the difference is that you can still think about future moves in the game while waiting for your opponent to play.

In poker, if cards aren’t cooperating, there isn’t much you can do – at least if you want to play the game right. You’ll have to fold a lot and sit around idly as you watch other players duking it out and dragging in big pots. But once you’ve mastered the great skill of not playing a single hand for two straight hours, other non-poker related tasks requiring patience will seem trivial in comparison.

 

6. The game will improve your decision-making skills

You’re constantly put to (tough) decisions when playing poker. Are they bluffing? Should you try to bluff? Should I go with my hand or wait for a better spot? There are dozens (or even hundreds, if you play online) of decisions you’ll have to make during every session, often under a lot of pressure.

Spending time in this high-pressure environment will make you a better decision-maker in life. It’s not by accident that many poker players later turn to other professions such as stock trading and investing. They’re good at making decisions under pressure and that’s a great skill to have no matter what you do for a living.

 

7. Poker can provide you with a nice side income

Although I haven’t really mentioned money up to this point, the fact is that many people earn a fair bit of extra money playing poker. You don’t have to be a hardened professional to do this. As long as you master fundamentals of the game and enjoy it enough to play a couple of times a week, you should be able to make a bit of extra cash from it.

Smaller stakes games are usually quite soft, especially in the live setting, so why not make some money as well while doing what you love doing?

 

================================================================================

 

What we’re all about at

Ace Poker Solutions

We offer the highest EV poker software, and training tools available on the net. These are recommended and used by today’s top poker players from the world. We’ve been doing this since 2009 with the emphasis on offering unique and creative poker software that will help any level of poker player be a more thoughtful and successful player at the table. We’d invite you to check these titles out:

 

PokerZion – Get Started with PokerZion’s Proven Poker Training for $7! From over 12+ years of playing poker, combined with techniques and tactics used to win over $500k+ in cash games, this the most comprehensive structured learning course on no-limit holdem. And it’s only7$! All lessons include a combination of poker training videos, written and audio modules, quizzes and articles. LEARN MORE.

 

Leak Buster Software – Leak Buster is a poker software that interfaces with your Holdem Manager or PokerTracker database, and extracts key statistics about your play in order to find your largest poker leaks. Its unique scoring algorithm weighs the impact of your leak against average win-rates. And it suggests ways to correct those leaks through the use of videos (over 50) and written modules. LEARN MORE.

 

DriveHUD – DriveHUD is a poker database and HUD for your online poker play. It overlays a HUD on your online poker tables, and display vital stats about each opponent on your table. It tracks and records all of the hands that you play online. This allows you to review, re-play, filter, graph and analyze all of the hands you’ve played. So you can improve your poker game. LEARN MORE.

 

ace poker drills

Ace Poker Drills – Ace Poker Drills is a poker training software that gives you a “flash card” style training for Odds and Outs, Equity, and Pre-Flop play. The Pre-Flop trainer will help you to easily recognize which hands to play in different positions. Odds and Outs trainer will get you to quickly calculate your odds and outs in various situations. Equity Trainer will quiz you on equity calculations for different hands. Then you can know your equity in any given scenario. LEARN MORE.