Paul Tasca's Blog

Paul Tasca's Blog

Paul Tasca  //  

Nov 23 / 1:31pm

Winning at poker can help you win at work.

Lessons learned: calculated risk taking, investment and confidence are crucial to win at poker and at work.  When we become overly cautious and focus more on limiting losses than maximizing gains, we lose out on opportunities.  Those lost opportunities are usually more haunting than the risks we have taken and lost.

I had the rare opportunity to play poker last week with a bunch of friends from my neighborhood.  Years ago, I used to play poker regularly with friends and I was admittedly a bit rusty.  This was a very friendly game with low monetary stakes and players with variable levels of poker playing skill.  Gradually most of the risk taking, wagering and bluffing techniques came back into focus.  We played for a few hours, everyone seemed to have fun and there was one person that won more than anyone else, a few that broke even and a few, like me that lost.  I ended up losing a fairly trivial amount of money yet the one thing that I remembered and regretted most about the evening was one particular hand.  This was a hand close to the end of the evening and as such the betting was high.  I didn’t have many chips left due to taking some calculated risks that didn’t pan out.  I hadn’t won a hand for some time.  I found myself concentrating more on how much I had already lost than how much I could win.  I became uncharacteristically cautious as other players began to bet a lot of chips on their hand.  I folded down my hand rather than continue to invest chips in my cards that were good yet I thought not great enough to win.  When everyone showed their cards, it was painfully apparent that my folded hand would have actually won a substantial amount, had I continued taking risks by investing in the game.  Unfortunately, I have thought more about that one lost hand than the simple enjoyment of spending a few hours with my friends.

 Email:         paul@paultasca.com            

Web:          http://www.paultasca.com

Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/paultasca

Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/people/@/100000330291507