Poker Skills/Life Skills

I know poker is just a card game to most people, but to the real enthusiast, poker skills are some of the most useful skills one can attain. I'm not really sure why this particular game mirrors the skills one needs in life better than all the others, but it does.

First of all, to be a fine poker player you can't worry about the last hand. No matter how bad that beat was, just as no matter how unfairly you were treated in the office. That was then and it, in a sense, no longer matters. If you dwell on the past. If you let the past effect your judgment going forward, you will be weakened. We call it "tilting." And it happens all the time. One bad beat. Another bad call. Leads to an overaggressive play. Before you know it, ipso facto, your broke or felted as we say in the biz.

At the same time, you can't be thinking about future hands. You may be down and you want to get back to, at least even, but if you force the action, you'll lose that ephemeral feel for the table. You acted before you developed the proper table image. Unless you get lucky, and sometimes you do get rewarded for making a bad play, you are going to lose. Its all about patience (especially in tournaments). Its all about picking the precisely best moment to do the precisely correct play. Its a surer bet and, in the long run, will lead to success.

In poker, you are forced to consider the present over all other time phases. It isn't easy. You want to get that win. You want to be in the mix, not on the sidelines. But your time will come. As the old joke goes; "Patience, Jackass, patience."

The other overwhelming concept about poker that I love is that it boils down our economic life to the bare essentials. I know something you don't know. You know something I don't know. I need to try to figure out what you know, before you do it to me. The overriding key situation is when we both got ziltch. In that case, the one who shows some testicular fortitude, some, but not too much, well thought out aggression, will win. You win those pots, or at least win most of those pots, and you'll make a lot of money playing poker. You better be one confident son of a bitch to play my game.

The game is me against you. Mano a mano. Bjorn against Utah. Bring on the cards. I'm gonna kick your ass.