Learn to play poker

“I soon realised, that as all good poker players know, it’s not about the cards but about the betting and reading other people. You can win with the worst hand. This then became quite fun as I experimented with going ‘all in’ and winning but also sometimes losing everything! You also learn to not get ‘pot committed’ which means that you need to realise when to fold your cards rather than keep betting just because you have already bet quite a bit. You also get to know how other people play and can even guess what cards they have. Poker is an infuriating game as the winner is often determined by the last uncovered card and you gasp and think ‘what were the chances of that happening?’ and yet it did!”

“In my entire time playing poker, I was never the best player in that chat room. If I’m being honest, I was probably in the bottom 10%. Back then, that fact would give me a lot of anxiety. I constantly asked myself questions like, “How come I can’t play like he does? What am I missing that he sees?” Now, I realize that the fact I was not the best player in the chat room allowed me to reach the level of success that I did. It caused me to ask “dumb” questions like “Why?” and “Can you explain why you made that play in a different way? I don’t understand.” These dumb questions forced my friends [...] to explain the core logic behind their decisions, illuminating the thought processes they used to play the game.”