Of all the games that we can play on a computer or mobile device, poker is unique.  It requires sound deductive judgment based on many factors plus sound inductive reasoning based on historical examples.  Poker can raise us up, train us for success in our chosen professions, and give us heightened levels of self-confidence.

Poker is Set to Explode as Billions Gain Access to Instant Communication

Online and mobile communication have completely changed the world!   With one sophisticated smartphone or tablet, you can send and receive messages, surf the internet, schedule your day long into the future, compose music or write articles and even books, download apps that have mushroomed in number into the tens of thousands, and play games.

There are thousands of games available on every top mobile device.  These include online casino games.  Of the many different kinds of online casino games, poker stands out as having qualities that the others may lack.  Players can play online poker at dedicated poker rooms or can play poker online as one of the games available at a full-fledged online casino.

Poker as a Growth Industry

In January Navkiran Singh published an article in which he discussed some of the unique aspects of poker as an online game.

As of last summer, the online gaming industry was worth approximately 120 billion dollars, about ten billion dollars more worldwide than the combined value of all television networks and independent stations.  Of that vast sum of money, mobile gaming is fast taking an ever-larger portion of the pie.

As mobile gaming becomes more accessible, poker is growing as a fraction of the online gaming sector.  Singh says in so many words that poker, of all the online casino games, is the game that appeals most to modern professionals.  Poker is a game of skill with a high level of risk and uncertainty. 

Blackjack is similar but blackjack is far more objective.  Blackjack at the highest level is driven by statistics.  In that sense, blackjack is more like baccarat than it is like poker.  Poker is highly subjective.  You might know what is usual in a given situation but the human element plays such a major role in poker that you can never rely solely on induction to help you decide your course.

Deduction in poker is a very complex matter as it takes into account the range of hands your opponent might have and the range of hands you might have.  It takes into account your opponent’s experience in fully appreciating your range of hands.  Deduction in poker takes into account the size of the pot, the expected value of any decision you might make, the place around the board where you and your opponent started the hand and many other factors.

Online poker is intuitive in ways that blackjack need never be.  Poker demands close attention to many details.  And online poker is infinitely more intuitive and requires far more attention to detail than the casino games of chance such as roulette and slots.

Mechanization and Specialization

Even in developing countries, there is a strong push in the business sector to mechanize as many jobs as possible.  In the United States, the push to an excessively high minimum wage for entry-level low-skilled positions in the fast food industry has led many restaurant chains to mechanize the order-taking process.

Some hamburger chains are experimenting with robots that can flip hamburgers.  They already have an electronic solution for taking our order - we do it ourselves on their touchpads.

This type of mechanization is being introduced or tried in many businesses.  The people who will be left with well-paying jobs will be those professional for whose jobs a suitable robot or terminal has not yet been developed.

China and India

The next element in the rise of online poker is the fast growth of the sophisticated business sectors in China and India with close to half of the world’s population.  The new professionals in these countries can afford to buy top-of-the-line mobile devices and have enough independent time to play games on those devices.

Why Poker?

Newly elevated professionals in fast-developing countries like China and India but not exclusively there are always looking for an edge to help them advance in their professions or even to stay where they are and not fall back.  Games and other activities that keep the mind sharp are invaluable in this environment.  There are many games that players can access online that can keep the mind sharp such as Sudoku, Kakuro, and hidato.  In fact, there are many variations of each of these excellent games.

But none of them include the beyond human element that poker entails.

Poker Excellence and Self-confidence

It is very difficult to exude self-confidence without seeming cocky and self-absorbed.  Success at poker can give players an inchoate sense of confidence that will impress their higher-ups and will not seem artificial.

Online poker players can play against opponents from every country in the world, of both genders, of every age group, of every ethnicity, and so on.  In the modern business world, having experience with people of different backgrounds is also important for advancement.

Networking

The ability to chat with opponents in an online poker game also can lead to forming relationships of sorts with poker opponents.  In business terms, this is an aspect of networking.  The key may be to play at lower stakes so that there isn’t any sense that you or your opponents are playing cutthroat poker.

Negotiation Skills

The betting in a poker hand can be directly correlated to business negotiations.  Poker players may actually develop negotiation skills that they never realized they had, through hours of poker playing.

Affordability of Mobile

Businesspeople need to be able to communicate with colleagues, customers, and suppliers in real time.  Before the advent of mobile communication, businesspeople who were away from a telephone might stop to call the office or home simply to find out if anyone had been trying to reach them.

In those days, woe to the petrol station with an out-of-order telephone!

Mobile provides instant communication and it provides instant access to anything the user might find helpful, fun, or both. 

Online Gaming to Grow

This is not to say that online gaming, in general, won’t grow in the future.  Certainly, it will as more and more people will be able to afford a top mobile device and will be willing to use savings to buy one.

The point is that poker has a unique niche in the online gaming market, in the self-advancement market, in the business training sector, and amongst people who are upwardly mobile and want the world to know it.