You see people playing poker games in movies or on television.
Your friends are all parts of a “poker night”. And you still haven’t tried playing poker games. What’s taking you so long? Poker, especially Texas hold ’em, is enjoying a huge renaissance, and you can really improve your life by learning this game of strategy and bluffing.
There are lots of reasons to play poker games. You can win good money on poker–you can test and improve your brain power–but the best argument of all in favor of playing poker games is that you’ll have a damn good time doing it.
If you need more convincing than that, or if you’re too much of a nancy-boy to give poker games a chance, here’s four great examples of why playing poker games will improve every aspect of your life.
1. Playing Poker Games to Learn Strategy
The world’s greatest poker players are also the world’s great strategists, liars, bluffers, and competitive manly men. The biggest brains in the world try to wrap their heads around the mathematical and strategic angles of poker — think of the MIT blackjack team or any number of egg-headed poker stars for proof. Poker is a game of endless and repeatable tests of strategy, perfect to develop your brainpower and teach yourself complex mathematical tools while playing a fun game.
Poker is a gambling game, true, but the greater part of poker is the intellectual challenge — good bluffing is important and is a difficult skill to learn. Then you have to try and learn to read your opponents’ hands using psychology and old fashioned instinct. The best poker players learn systems of strategy inside and out, then learn how to recognize and beat them.
Poker is an intellectual pursuit as much as it is a card game. I would bet that the world’s best players of poker would make great generals at battle. If you want to keep your brain active, play poker.
2. Playing Poker Games For Profit
This one should be obvious — there are plenty of legal ways to make a good living playing poker, if you’re good at it that is.
The betting system that poker uses allows players to invest a little or a lot depending on their own idea of the chance they have of winning. Poor hands may end up saving you cash by folding before bidding gets too high. A big hand can be milked into a big pot if you play it right. This is why the profit margin in poker is so wide. Play a game one way and earn a different amount of money.
You will lose plenty of times in your career as a poker player, but it is the smart wins and smart plays that will enable you to make a job of playing poker games. Building your poker skills to the level that you can actually make cash takes time — don’t expect to read one poker eBook and hit up Vegas for thousands of dollars.
To make money on poker, you have to be a patient and super-smart card gamer. People that can play a highly strategic game at the top of their ability for long periods of time are few and far between — but if you need a motivator to learn the game of poker, a potential cash profit should do the trick. (You also need to find a legitimate online cardroom and/or online casino at which to play.)
Imagine learning a card game that on its surface is fun — never forget that poker is a game played for fun — that can also put money in your pocket?
3. Playing Poker Games to Impress Women
It sounds cheesy, and on one level it is a low move, but if you can play poker well, you’ll put yourself in the kind of company that attracts gorgeous women.
High rollers, poker stars, and guys with fat wallets are rarely without a beautiful dame. If you’re the kind of guy that values his social standing and his appearance, learning to play poker games could be your fast track to the good life.
Besides the possibility of profit, there’s the whole “poker mystique” thing women find sexy. The sunglasses, the rituals, the high stakes gambling, the tension of a close game — it drives some women crazy.
I’m not saying that sitting at an online poker site playing poker games all night will guarantee you a date — in fact that sounds like a totally disastrous plan — but if you play your cards right (pardon the pun) you could become Joe Cool on your next trip to Vegas. You see any women hanging all over guys at the slot machines? I didn’t think so.
4. Playing Poker Games for Fun
The thrill of competing against people. The intellectual challenge.. The social aspect of poker and people who love to play it. Playing poker games is fun, plain and simple.
Poker is a social game where you sit with a set number of people around a small table and talk and play for hours into the night. Trust me — if you sit in poker rooms in casinos for a few hours you’ll make all kinds of friends, meet people from all walks of life, and have a blast no matter if you win or lose.
Because you can never really “top out” in terms of poker skills, there’s always a new wrinkle to playing poker. You’ll never master the game and grow bored with it, and there’s always a crowd of people out there waiting to prove to you have bad you are at playing poker games.
Between the competitive and social parts of the game of poker, you’ll never get bored with a hand of poker in front of you.
If all these reasons haven’t convinced you, go out and play poker games and give poker a try. It is a cold hard fact that the coolest guys with the deepest pockets and the hottest women play poker games. It is a fun game with depth of strategy and variation to keep you interested. Plop down at your local poker room (or give an online poker venue a chance) and be a part of the latest trend in card games.
You can find more poker articles here, and you can read about various poker movies here.