Chicago Diary: Poker and Personality

My summer in Chi City would be very monotonous if not for cricket and cards (Hold’em mainly). Cricket has been part of parcel of my life since very young age, and I’ve always enjoyed playing it, sometimes at professional level and other times just for fun. Poker though is somewhat recent and is menacingly becoming my favorite past time. Apart from the occasional wins and more than occasional losses, my experiences with Poker have been very educative and entertaining. I first began playing poker for fun (without money) and was never serious in betting, it was more a reason to socialize than for competitive reasons. But recently, having tasted some success in Casinos I feel that poker is all the more entertaining when it involves emotions, excitement and more importantly money. Success has fueled me to be more successful on a continuous basis, since success is spelt MONEY in poker. Consequently, to hone my poker skills I got into reading some available literature on poker, mostly books written by some poker legends as well as some fictional story writers. Although each of the authors has their favorite hands and styles of playing, they all convey a same message i.e. play to win. They also try to teach you on how to read others game and play accordingly. However, after analyzing the game under the light shed by the books, I believe that a person’s behavior at poker table can be related to their behavior patterns under pressure.

In Hold’em you play a hand either when you have good cards, or when you can make others believe that you have good cards. You got to hold your cards close to your chest and try to read others cards based three aspects, 1. cards on the board; 2. facial expressions and; 3 body language. This is somewhat analogous to our human behavior in day-to day life, where we tend to make judgment based on the available information. Also in a daily routine you tend to ignore (called ‘fold’ in Hold’em) stuff that are not of concern to you, or stuff that you think will not be beneficial to you in near future. Secondly, we try to pursue things that we have known to be good, or things that we see have some returns in the future (called ‘bet’). In extreme cases when we think that this is the one we want, we give it best shot (called ‘all in’). The tough part is recognizing the opponents. We cannot play this game alone. So as a rule of thumb we are constantly measuring ourselves with people or things around us.

Yet in a philosophical setting, the play style would just represent your way of dealing things around you. How do you fit in a company? Would you be aggressive to make a mark right up front or would you be the silent killer that strikes at the right opportunity or would you be the ‘seasonal loser’ that keeps waiting for that one hand which never comes? As in life the poker table has this dynamic setting about it. One that amazed me most was how to react when someone bullies you around (called ‘high stack bully’)? Do I give into it with frustration or just keep ignoring the trash talk? However, it is not always a learning experience at poker table because there is always a factor called ‘luck’. This brings up an important question of corporate world how would you deal when you know that you had best shot yet some lesser mortal has gained it by sheer luck?

If you were to play and learn at the same time, I guess poker does it. But as it is in all cases of life, learning comes with a price and it is ultimately you who has to decide what PRICE you are going to pay for these invaluable lessons?