Why Poker is the Hardest Game to Master and Why that Matters
It may seem a little incongruous to talk about poker when gamers like to play our more than 300 casino games with our $5555 Welcome Package of bonuses that culminates in the Everygame Casino no deposit bonus!
We will show how poker is the hardest game to master and then we will move to the psychology of gaming which does directly relate to gaming here at Everygame Casino.
Aren’t Chess and GO the Hardest Games to Master?
It is true that these two games are generally seen as the hardest to play well. So, we are stepping outside of the conventional wisdom to talk about poker as the toughest game to play well.
The key element that separates poker from all otter difficult games of skill is that in poker there are always HIDDEN CARDS! That means that in poker, there is always hidden information and good players find out-of-the-box ways to surmise what the hidden cards are.
Bridge Also Has Hidden Cards
That is very true.
However, poker has another element that bridge doesn’t have: the psychology of one’s opponents. Bridge has developed over the last hundred or so years many techniques for trapping opponents. These techniques don’t always work, of course. There is an element of luck in bridge as there is in poker.
Whereas poker players need to go out of the box to figure out what an opponent’s hidden cards are, In bridge, all of the ways players have of surmising what the hidden cards are, are entirely within the box!
The big difference between poker and bridge is that the psychology of one’s opponents is extremely important in poker and it is not at all important in bridge!
Isn’t There Any Psychology in Chess and GO?
Not nearly as much as one might think! Chess players are notorious for being eccentric but when they start a game, chess players are full of deep concentration and their eccentricities get submerged.
In poker, the psychology of one’s opponents—their eccentricities as it were— is never submerged. To excel at poker, a player has to know both the game and psychology.
How Does Poker Manifest the Psychology of Players?
In a single word, bluffing! The element of bluffing makes poker the hardest game to learn.
Chess and GO are out in the open. Poker is infinitely more subtle. Chess and GO are more aesthetic than poker but that doesn’t make them harder to master; it just makes them more elegant!
Poker involves the psychology of every player. It leads to tilt far more than chess does. Therefore, a major aspect of mastering poker involves subsuming one’s tilting nature towered concentrating on the next hand rather than rehashing the previous hand or a hand that was played long before!
Poker Combines Skill and Luck
After a player has “figured out” the hand and has bet appropriately, the one card that would upset the apple cart could and often does turn up! That is the luck aspect of poker which is functionally non-existent in chess and GO!
Part of the skill side of chess is that it is a three-dimensional game requiring good spatial recognition skills which can be learned and improved upon but are largely inborn.
Poker has no spatial or three-dimensional side although understanding the psychology of one’s opponents might be seen as a fourth dimension!
On the other hand, skilled poker involves math and odds or probability while there is no math aspect to chess, nor are odds and probability factors in mastering the game.
How Does All this Relate to Casino Gaming at Everygame Casino?
We normally divide the games here at Everygame into two categories: games of chance and games of skill.
The games of skill are basically blackjack and video poker. These games are much easier to learn and to master than are regular poker, chess, GO, and many other games of skill.
These games of skill serve as excellent counterpoints to the more difficult games of skill. The ability of most gamers to master the basic strategies in blackjack and video poker give them the confidence to try their hand at poker.
Skill at Online Games of Skill Translates to Other Areas Well
As soon as a player realizes that he or she has the mental agility to master the technical side of poker, they can then concentrate on learning the game’s psychological side!
As such, the online casino games of skill we offer are valuable as confidence-builders and as less complex games to master before a player takes on the challenge presented by chess, GO, poker and others.
Video poker gives plates practice in quickly recognizing the potential value of a hand. This can be transferred to regular poker as a player tries to evaluate the potential hand of an opponent based on her or his bets, past tendencies, and many other factors.
Quickly recognizing the potential value of any idea is a valuable “commodity” in business!
Are the Games of Chance Valuable as Well?
Slots are the most popular game of chance in the casino. We also offer roulette, craps, baccarat, Fish Catch, and Banana Jones as fun games of chance. They are all a great complement to poker.
Poker requires so much concentration that playing games of chance at Everygame Casino even for a short time, recharges a gamer’s battery and redirects her or his thoughts to less complex matters. Slots and the other games of chance can soothe one’s mind. This is a service of immense value to people who have to concentrate their minds for long stretches of time through work and/or play!
The Four Horsemen of Games and of Life
Many have identified concentration skills as one of the four most important skills to develop for excellence in games of skill, business, and life in general. In no specific order, they are:
- Concentration
- Training
- Focus
- Discipline
It is impossible to determine which of these four learned skills is more important than the others. It is safe to say that they work synergistically.
The same is true of the more than 300 games we offer here at Everygame Casino. They work together to foster better concentration skills, help train the mind for more difficult games and other challenges, require deep and direct focus on a goal on every hand, and demand discipline.
Discipline in online gaming involves setting budgets and limits to fostering the most fun possible. Discipline in gaming leads to more fun and better gaming! Discipline in everyday life leads to deeper satisfaction and joy.
Online casino may play a relatively small role here but it does play an important role. That is why we encourage all garners to JOIN EVERYGAME ONLINE CASINO!