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Poker Articles What makes Poker Fun... or at least satisfying?
Poker Articles What makes Poker Fun... or at least satisfying? | What makes Poker Fun... or at least satisfying? |
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Of course the thrill of gambling is appealing and fun to a lot of people and even to a lot of poker players. But gambling when you are at a disadvantage will result in an inevitable loss of money in the long run. So gambling might be ok as entertainment in moderation, but definitely not as a full time hobby. Poker in addition to the chance element also has a skill element. This skill element derives from the fact that you can make decisions during the hand about the amount that is bet or whether to continue with the hand or wait for the next. This and only this is where a good poker player can make money, by outplaying his opponent (making better decisions) . There is no discussion about this and all good players will agree. There are however a lot of different ways to come to your decisions. Your goal as a player should be to have a much information a possible to make a good decision and as little hinder from factors that might cloud your decision. Now let me give you some examples of skills or knowledge that you need to play winning poker. I think the first and most important skill you need is control and discipline. This might not seem like fun in the beginning, but once you will get rewarded for it by profit you might change your mind. First of all the discipline most people dread is the discipline that was imposed on us for things we didn’t choose or wanted to do. While the discipline that gets you to do what is most important to you in the long run, and is decided in a moment of wisdom and not as a whim, should be fun or at least satisfying. The second skill in poker is knowing your chances or math, also not something that at first sounds like fun. But knowing why you will win in the long run, will definitely give you satisfaction. And will be more satisfying in the long run, than the fun of getting lucky in a game that will eventually lose you money. The third skill in poker is people skills, like reading people’s “tells” or finding ways to get an opponent to do what you want them to do. And when this works it really is plain fun and satisfying. The fourth major skill is strategic thinking. Setting up a plan for a specific hand or session or thinking about how to optimize your winnings. The fifth skill is emotional control. Like professional athletes, you shouldn’t be to down about your lows or to high from your highs. Also you should control your fears or emotions about your hand during the hand. As you read all this you might find that all the skills that make you successful in poker are the same skills that make you successful in life, and that is very true most cases. That is probably the part of the appeal of poker. In the next essays we will dive deeper in these skills and others needed to be a winning poker player. Until than think about what skills or sub skills might be useful for poker and how you can acquire them. |
What makes poker fun in my opinion that it is a combination of many elements. Separated they may be interesting but combined they are dynamite. One of elements is chance, as in many casino games or board games. | < Prev |
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