July 18, 2008
Learning the Hard Way is Good For You
Playing poker means dealing with constant setbacks, live or on the poker sites doesn’t matter. If that’s not a school for life, I’m not a renowned pro.
Okay, so I’m not, but it’s still true.
In poker, no matter if you’re good or bad, you’ll have to face bad beats and strong plays time and time again. You’ll be watching powerlessly as your chips are dragged away over the felt to a smiling opponent. And that’s when you did everything right.
In another blog post I told you about one particularly crazy flow of events in a game of Texas Holdem poker. I mean, if you can contain yourself in that kind of episode, you’ve definitely picked up a grain of stoicism along the road, haven’t you.
Harvard law school professor Charles R. Nesson pursues a really bold campaign to establish poker as an accepted learning tool. Obviously this idea is cut out to put one or two conservative school politicos on the tilt of their life.
But, why not?! Besides teaching kids things like math, economics and psychology in a really fun and active way, playing poker could also teach our small friends not to give up if life runs a little cold at times.
Which it will.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I agree. I’ve seen people learn how to play from very successful aggressive players and they often lack the foundation that builds a solid poker game. It’s pretty easy to see this when they get into sticky situations.