Poker is a game that pushes your analytical, mathematic and interpersonal skills to the limit. It’s a game that also indirectly teaches a lot of life lessons.
Some of these are a bit obvious, but others you might not think about. For instance, poker teaches you to pay attention to your opponent’s body language and their facial expressions (if playing in a physical environment). This requires a lot of concentration to recognise tells and read changes in your opponents’ emotions.
A good poker player can use this information to his advantage. He can bluff to deceive his opponents and force them into making bad decisions or fold when they realise that they have a weak hand. Moreover, poker can teach you to be more organised and disciplined. It can help you develop the ability to learn quickly and make good decisions under pressure.
The first thing that poker teaches you is how to build a winning hand. There are various poker hands, but the most basic ones are the pair, three of a kind and straight. Pair is two cards of the same rank, three of a kind contains 3 matching cards of one rank and straight is 5 consecutive cards of the same suit.
Another important thing that poker teaches you is the importance of reading and learning about the game. Poker articles and training videos can be very useful in this regard. However, it’s important to focus your study on just one concept each week. This is because you can better grasp a topic when you study it on its own rather than watching a cbet video on Monday, reading a 3-bet article on Tuesday and then listening to a podcast about ICM on Wednesday.