What Personality Traits Equate Well to Poker

In a sense poker players are like a corporation. Like a corporation, poker players must always be cognizant of the bottom line: Every decision has to improve your bottom line or it’s a bad decision. Just like a business feelings have very little place at a poker table, because your feelings will often hurt your bottom line results. In this article I’ll present a list of personality traits that society frowns upon that will aid a poker player, and also a few traits that are considered virtuous that will impair a player.

Detachment - While not good in relationship, being able to detach from your emotions at a poker table will help you stave off tilt when things don’t go your way. No matter what is going on at the table it’s best to have a care-less attitude, and just revel in the fact that as a good player you will win in the long-run.

Manipulative - The ability to manipulate your opponents is what separates a good player from a great player: Good players are able to confuse their opponents and force them to guess -sometimes right and sometimes wrong– great players are able to manipulate their opponents into doing precisely what they want.

Narcissistic - To excel at any individual activity you must possess a certain level of self-importance. You’ll notice every successful poker player exudes confidence at all times to the point where most seem very stuck-up. However, this is a necessary trade-off to being a great poker player.

Ruthlessness - Poker is about small advantages, and in order to really prosper you have to take full advantage of every single one of these advantages. You can’t be soft on the drunken guy, or the little old lady, you need their money! It’s ok to offer a heartfelt “sorry” after stacking them off, but make sure you stack them off!

Greedy - Greed goes along with ruthlessness in poker; not only do you have to try to take every nickel a person has, you have to actually enjoy doing it.

Contentment - Contentment in poker is when you feel your results are “good enough”. Players who are content leave a lot of money on the table, and are almost assuredly losing players. Your edge is so minute in poker that you have to always be on the lookout for any profitable scenario.

Sincerity -Lying is at the center of a good poker strategy, players who are sincere -whether by their actions or by what they say-are going to get eaten alive at the poker tables.

Compassionate - If you’re playing poker to make friends you better realize you’re going to lose money. You simply can’t feel bad for people who are A) bad at poker and B) willing to gamble their money away. Think of it this way, if they don’t lose it to you, they are going to lose it to someone else.