Wise Words: Poker Advice For The Soul
March 11, 2010
The best poker advice I ever got came during the first game I ever played. I was a few hands in after a quick tutorial from my fiance, and was trying my best to gauge how good my hole cards stood on the flop.
“Get your eyes off your cards and onto the players. You’re playing them, not the cards,” my fiance said. “the cards won’t change, but our faces might.”
She was right. I started to think of the game in terms of the other players rather than making the rookie mistake of just focusing on the cards. And my 8/deuce off-suit didn’t change, no matter how hard I stared.
It’s funny how poker analogies usually start with “Poker is like life…” There is something to that. If you focus too much on yourself, you are going to miss a lot of what is going on around you. Keep your head up and you’ll see opportunities to move forward, and signs when it is best to retreat.
Sure, my game got better (my fiance can still destroy me though. Heart of gold and a poker face of stone), but I began to see there was something to all the poker/life advice.
So I throw it out to you – what is the best or worst poker advice you’ve gotten, and is it at all applicable in the real world? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Ryan Smith is a contributing blog writer for GR88.com
