As you may have noticed, a lot of successful business leaders play poker. From leaders in tech, to innovative startup founders, to CEOs of major companies, the game is a shared hobby — and has been for a long time. This is likely due in part to the simple fact that people in these positions tend to have a little bit of money to play with, and enjoy doing so at casino poker tables. However, there’s also something to be said for the idea that there are certain ways in which poker strategy and business sense overlap.

To that point, the argument can be made that poker actually helps some business leaders to be better at what they do. And while this of course isn’t an assertion that can be concretely proven, there are a number of specific reasons that it makes sense.

 

Managing Money

 

The skill of managing finances is essential for anyone who intends to start and/or run a business. And while it’s something that can be learned through all kinds of different means, poker teaches it quite efficiently. When you’re playing poker for real money, whether online or in person, you have a budget to manage, buy-ins to consider, and constant decisions to make based on what you can afford to lose and what you hope to gain. It’s a contained activity in which complex, on-the-go financial consideration takes place constantly. Even if it doesn’t teach specific financial practices relating to running a business, it trains players to consider the real money implications of decisions at all times.

 

The Risk/Reward Balance

 

Relating to the idea of managing money is assessing risk and reward. Every business owner — at any level and in any industry — needs to understand what is and is not worth taking a risk for. Specific considerations vary according to circumstance, but one some level assessing these questions is a fundamental skill. And again, it’s one that people can learn through poker. Every single decision at a poker table is in effect a tug-of-war between risk and reward. One does not become a successful player without learning how and when to take risks, and what makes those risks worthwhile.

 

Controlling Emotions

 

The ability to control emotions is also important for any business leader, and it’s another skill that poker trains players in quite efficiently. Ultimately, while odds, strategies, and game savvy are all important, learning how to win at poker tends to be as much about psychology as anything else. Specifically, players have to get used to the idea of keeping their emotions measured when things are going well, and to be calmly accepting when things are going poorly. These ups and downs are realities of the game, and players who take them in stride tend to be more successful. The same is true of business leaders managing the inevitable ups and downs of running a company.

 

Interpreting Signals

 

Poker famously involves learning to read other people and interpret signals as well. It may be an aspect of the game that’s somewhat overblown in cinema (and by some of the more dramatic pro players on TV), but it is part of poker. Players are constantly communicating things with body language and misleading comments, and the best competitors learn to read these signals with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The world of business, meanwhile, doesn’t usually involve such direct non-verbal sparring. But rest assured, there will come times for any business leader when it’s convenient to have a skillset related to reading other people and interpreting signals.

 

Understanding Process

 

With this final point we’re not referring to learning a specific process, so much as coming to understand that improvement is a process. Few activities teach this more effectively than poker — a game at which players can (and often do) improve with each passing game. Everyone who’s become a reasonably strong poker player can recognize the process that was needed to reach that point. For that reason, people with experience at the tables may also be more understanding of the fact that all entrepreneurs and business owners have lessons to learn. No one steps into the role knowing everything there is to know about running a company.

Given these factors, there’s a real argument to be made that poker can in fact make you a better business owner.