Poker is a game that has intrigued audiences for many years. In fact, it is so famous that songs and movies have been written about it. Everyone knows about it, even if you might not be sure on exactly how to play it. Poker kits can be bought at your local shopping mall and many of us know or have friends that own these kits, if we do not own it ourselves. Ask friends at a dinner table if they would like to play the game and you get an over whelming, yes.
But why is it such an attractive game to onlookers and players alike? What draws us to the Poker scene, even if only in movies? Psychology tells us that Poker is a game that we, as the average people on the street, associate with the rich and famous. When we enjoy Poker, it is as if we are the rich and famous. Of course, this is a subconscious process that is triggered due to the Hollywood portrayals. But surely there is more to it than just that.
Mind Games
We have to first just understand that Poker is a game of chance. You can be as skilled as what you can be, but at the end of the day it is dependent on the cards that you are dealt with. Sometimes a raw hand is simply that, a raw hand that you can do nothing with. Even though this is the case, there is of course a few aspects of the game that you can control.
The first aspect is that Poker is a private game. Unlike Black Jack for example, where your cards are put on display for everyone to see, Poker is reliant on the fact that your hand is private and no one knows what you are sitting with. Even if you do have a raw hand, you are the only one that knows this and the people around the table will only know this if you tell them.
Of course, no one around a Poker table is going to talk to the people next to them to swop notes on how good or bad a hand may or may not be. But generally, the people that are sitting around the table are all quite skilled at reading body language and facial expressions. This is where mind games come in. You make the other players believe that your hand is great even if it isn’t. This bluffing technique is part of puts Poker a cut above the rest.
Money Management
The bluffing technique of course goes beyond the fact of body language and facial expressions. When you bluff, you need to make sure that your opponents do not catch on to the fact that you are bluffing. This means that you still need to be able to bet as if you do have a winning hand. Money Management becomes very important here. Not just for that round but for the entire night.
You need to plan that you are going to play a certain money strategy, the entire night. This applies to both winning and loosing hands. The moment you play a loosing hand with the losing money mentality, you tip your opponents off and you have lost that round. Always play the game as if you are busy winning.