Most people consider this game to be pure gambling, associating it solely with luck. But is that really the case?

In fact, poker is a game of skill that requires:

Patience

Stress management

Risk calculation ability

Determining the most profitable actions

And more

Many of these align perfectly with investing and have helped me develop habits that have led to success in business and daily life.

Today, I want to share the skills you can learn from playing cards and studying poker, and how they can help you become a better investor.1. You will learn how to calculate risk

"Like trading, poker is all about probabilities."

When you play poker, you must compare your potential losses with the possible wins and make a decision that can yield the best returns in the long run.

To do this, players need to have a solid understanding of mathematics and probabilities, and learn to assess all possible outcomes, which is very similar to the behavior of investors.

Poker players learn to weigh each bet, not blindly hoping for success, but evaluating every possible outcome and preparing for every situation.

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Understanding when the situation turns unfavorable, and when to literally fold in poker, or when to sell stocks that have lost potential, could be the deciding factor in achieving long-term success.

Before playing poker, my investment decisions were random.

I bought and sold stocks without any analysis, whenever I felt like it. Not surprisingly, it did not yield impressive results.

Poker helped me understand that I only need to take risks when the odds are in my favor, and the potential gains can greatly outweigh the losses.

Then following what everyone else does may not be a good idea.1. That person is a game-changer for me.

2. You will learn how to cope with stress.

Imagine yourself playing in a poker tournament with thousands of players, with your money on the line.

Everything starts slowly, but the longer you play, the greater the pressure you encounter. A wrong decision in the later stages of the tournament could mean losing, barely winning, or securing a huge prize.

The pressure keeps building until you reach the final table, where you have to deal with massive chip jumps and still make the best decisions.

Finding yourself in such a position for the first time can be quite challenging, but the more you play, the easier it becomes to handle the pressure.

In poker, I've learned to keep my thoughts away from short-term gains and assess all available information, enabling me to make better long-term decisions even under immense pressure.

No matter what you do, being able to withstand pressure is a life-changing skill!

3. You learn to control your emotions and accept reality.If you study poker, play the game seriously, and know the right strategies, most of the time you will make better decisions than your opponents. However, this does not guarantee that you will win every time you sit at the table. You can take all the right measures, but you can still lose, simply because your opponent is lucky enough to win with a 2% chance on the last card. That's just part of the game, but the most important thing is how you respond to this situation.

Of course, you could start cursing, insulting your opponent, or doing other crazy things to calm yourself down, but how would that help you? It won't, but it's hard for me to learn. At first, I was very agitated in this situation and blamed everyone around me. I didn't accept reality.

Playing poker has helped me realize what I can control and what is beyond my influence. Mathematics is mathematics, and the 2% chance needs to happen every 50 hands, so it's just one of the possible outcomes. The best thing you can do is accept the situation and continue to play the poker game.

If you stick to the plan, you may first get your money back and then take some more.Investing is much the same way.

If you've conducted a fundamental analysis of a stock and see a plethora of numbers suggesting that the stock should rise, but shortly after purchasing it, you can choose how to react.

You can panic and sell it to take the loss, a choice I made many times before my poker career.

Alternatively, you can stick to the initial analysis and wait it out, which may be the better strategy.

You can train this skill by learning poker and bringing it to the table.

4. You will learn to enhance your patience.

When playing poker, you often find yourself in a situation where the "cards are dead" and you can't get any playable hands.

The important point here is not to get emotional and insist on folding unless you find the right spot. When it comes to the stock market, I could say the same thing.

The fact that you have money to invest does not mean you have to invest it immediately.

In some cases, it's better to wait for a good opportunity rather than spending money on a random person, waiting for many opportunities and sitting on your money.We all make emotional decisions that we later regret, and I am no exception.

In some cases, I was so eager to invest that I invested in a saturated market, only to later lose a significant portion of my portfolio.

These decisions can cost you a lot of money, a lesson that poker players learn quickly.

This game helped me to enhance my patience and control my emotions, leading to better decision-making and successful investments.

5. You will learn how to choose the most profitable trades

You only have a limited amount of time to devote to the game, so finding the most lucrative game becomes a necessity for maximizing returns.

I do believe that poker players are some of the best players in this field.

As you learn how to play poker, you will understand the commission that must be paid for the game (called the rake), how long you can play (liquidity), and assess many different options to find the best one.

Again, this is entirely in line with the stock market.

There are many stocks to choose from, many of which are good investments, but your capital is limited and you must choose the best stocks to maximize returns.It is not surprising that many professional poker players also invest, and many successful investors play poker.

Poker has helped me improve the skills needed for investing, which may also be helpful to you even if it does not improve your decision-making in other aspects of life.

Are you ready to take a risk?