Playing Poker, Not Chess, to Get Results
Chess has long been touted to improve intelligence, memory and logic. But when it comes to applying those skills in the real world, it’s missing something.
Something that Poker provides in spades (pun intended) — weighing options, taking risks, reading people, even managing the element of luck. It’s these skills that directly translate into becoming a better player in business and even life.
Have you ever played Poker before?
I’ve played a number of times, but it didn’t click until a few weeks back when I was playing with a few friends in Utah. Don’t worry, it was all COVID safe. Even though I didn’t understand all the details of how the different hands stacked up against each other, I understood the fundamentals of how to play.
How to risk.
How to assess options.
And how to bet.
It all seemed like such a perfect analogy for how we operate on a daily basis.
I spent many years focusing on logic, making sense, improving what I know. All of that was important, but didn’t make much of a difference until I started bringing in some of these other elements. The real world is much more dynamic than pure logic.
Just like Poker, where you risk money by placing bets, it takes risking something in business: could be your money, but it might be your reputation or your relationships, to make any meaningful gains. It’s not blind risk though, it’s balancing risk to a degree that works for you. Coupled with reading other people to understand their likely actions, it all adds up to a win or a loss. And when you get good, you generally like the results.
Without practicing those Poker skill sets, by playing Poker or otherwise, you’re at a loss. Bill Gates in his early days at Harvard played Poker all the time. From what I’ve read, he ran a game at Currier House and was quite an aggressive player. The mood in the room was said to be tense, unfriendly and sometimes boring as they played. And he didn’t always win. But what he was doing was honing his skill of taking risks, reading people and weighing options. A skill that came into play when he bluffed his way into his first software deal — getting interest from MITS (an early computer hardware manufacturer) — before they had even written any code.
Tony Hsieh, Michael Phelps, Ed Norton, Ben Affleck and many others are known for their Poker playing skills. Poker helps you start to understand when to go “all in” versus holding back. Same in business. You can start to collect information around other players and their suspected hands and change course accordingly. Same in business. It even gives you a chance to fold in order to live to fight another day. Same as in business.
We’re going to be talking about some of these skills in the #NoMatterWhat Community on Facebook this week if you want to join. If you haven’t joined yet, you need to. It’s a group of people committed to growth regardless of what’s happening in the world. And they have your back as you’re testing and trailing some of these Poker skills yourself.
Don’t get me wrong, I love chess. I love the logic, the memory, even the concentration. It just doesn’t translate fully into building all of the essential skills around how the world actually works. Playing Poker builds skills you need to take all of the logic, memory and concentration and turn it into results. But take it one step at a time. Nobody in their right mind would go from not knowing Poker at all to jumping into a high-stakes game. Lean in slowly. Learn to manage risk a little differently, get interested in how to read people and certainly don’t risk more than you can afford.
The only question is, when do you want to play?
Disclaimer, gambling should be taken seriously and if you or someone you know has a problem with it there are resources to help. If that’s the case, I offer you can take the spirit of this piece and find other ways to practice these same ideas.