Adapting to Change: What Poker Can Teach Us About Flexibility

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Playing on an online poker site is a microcosm of the real world. There’s an endless number of variable processes and many different outcomes, meaning you’ll have a great time playing on the top online poker site ranked here according to OutlookIndia. Whether it’s re-adjusting goals or strengthening your position, the classic card game can teach us a lot about being flexible in our lives.

Assessment of Changing Environments

Poker is a fluid game with over 1300 combinations possible. The lay of the land does not stay static for too long. The moving parts of the cards and whether players are in or out of the round completely change the game dynamic. This echoes multiple scenarios that people can experience while away from the poker table. One of the most prevalent examples is the world of business. Industries can change rapidly with ever-changing legislation, customer demand, and other aspects that make them susceptible to change. Playing poker might not help you understand the new tax system for your market but it will help you react to it.

Not Being Afraid to Change Tact

Poker players usually head into a big game with a strategy in mind. Whether it’s to be relatively passive for the first few rounds and then pounce or even the opposite, it’s good to have a Plan A. The very best poker players however aren’t afraid to have multiple back-up ideas and change tact fluidly as the game dictates. I.e. there might be an overly aggressive player they didn’t anticipate playing with, so will need to re-assess their strategy.

In life, the same pillars of wisdom can be leaned on to help enrich your life. While you might have drawn up a foolproof plan to enjoy a picnic in the great outdoors, if the rain starts to pour unexpectedly – it might be a good idea to change your itinerary. You might have a reservation booked at the best steakhouse in town only to find out that your date is a vegan, again another tact change might do wonders in terms of the overall success of the occasion. Whether that be changing restaurant or the person on the date…Poker can teach resilience in tough situations where you need to make a judgment call on a change.

Learning from Mistakes

The world would be a very different place if nobody made mistakes. From putting the incorrect amount of postage on a letter to leaving the oven on when leaving the house, there’s a range of them out there. Poker is a game played at a decent speed, so players can rattle through experiences relatively quickly. This means they will experience a mistake or two from their end throughout a session. Even if it’s a session-ending mistake, the best players can learn from these mistakes and take the lessons into their next poker session. If it’s reading the opponent’s body language better or understanding the game better, there are benefits from it, as long the player embraces it with an open mind.

The real world offers such opportunities too. If you do leave the oven on at home when you’ve left home, the fear of burning the house down will probably ensure you never do it again. Ensuring that change the mistake action so it doesn’t happen again. After all, there is a famous phrase by Albert Einstein:  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Coping with New Players

To play poker you’ve got to have a few people sitting at the table. If you’re playing an extended session either online or at the casino, then you’ll see some of your counterparts come and go. Any good poker player can flexibly adjust to the advent of a new player arriving at the table, assess what makes them tick, and try to defeat them.

This presents a lot of similarities in the real world. Whether you appreciate it or not, new people can break into your world all the time. It could be a new colleague at work, the people who live next door could move and you’ll get a set of new neighbors or you might even find a partner to share your life with. The flexibility to socialize with these new stakeholders in your life is an important life skill that can be complimented with a bit of poker. In addition, the ability to cope with new players at the poker table will assist business owners or managers with the advent of new companies entering the marketplace.

Tyler Darby

Tyler Darby