“The only difference between a boardroom table and a poker table is the shape.”

Bobby Baldwin, CEO of Mirage Resorts

Given today’s belt-tightening and budget shrinking, making a relatively small investment in a poker table for the office is a real alternative to expensive golf outings, group dinners or costly teambuilding offsites. Custompokertables.com has been receiving an increased number of inquiries from businesses who are discovering that starting a monthly poker night for their employees is an effective opportunity for team bonding and camaraderie that doesn’t break the bank!

Additionally, it’s starting to become more known that the acquired skills gained at a poker table can directly apply to the workplace. You have to hone your intuition to make quick decisions based on your ability to “read” your competition. To win, it is important that you understand how your rivals tick, take note of how they react and what choices they make during the game.

The secret is to get familiar with your challengers, and not to presume that your challenger has the same thinking that you do. You have to discern when to drive home a benefit; when acting with certainty will lead to a good outcome and when acting unreceptively will. Lastly, you have to know when to cut your losses and get out before you lose your shirt or otherwise waste resources on a losing battle.

A poker player’s talents in these areas have many applications in the workplace, whether it is specific roles such as sales, business development or customer service, or more general skills such as decision making, teamwork and risk analysis.

At times, you want your rival to think they’re succeeding when they’re actually being defeated, and other moments you wish for them to feel weakness even when they have a winning hand. 

You need to handle your bankroll well, and decide wisely when to put in your restricted resources and when to stop your losses. Most of all, you have to educate yourself in balancing risks over rewards. Skillful players don’t rely on luck. They wait until the odds are in their favor and proceed for the jugular. Poker trains you to be assertive, proactive, but also to be choosy rather than rash and inattentive.

After-hours poker games are a cost-effective way to facilitate team bonding, to get your employees to mingle and have some real fun while they’re at it. Try establishing a regular poker tournament for each of the various departments or work floors, culminating in a “final table” showdown. If your company frowns upon gambling for cash, your company can sponsor small prizes or trophies instead.  

The game rules of poker are easy to understand and can be learned in a matter of few minutes. Moreover, each employee begins the game on a completely equal footing – regardless of their positions in the office; every player has the same possibility of winning.

Does it still make sense to pay $$$$ to a corporate games company to run a teambuilding exercise that will have your employees play at artificial activities in order to accomplish fake goals that will be forgotten about the next day…

…or instead, watch your employees bond over a regular, cheap game of poker while honing real-life skills of negotiation, risk-taking and developing a competitive drive?

 A supplement I have found and have been using during golf rounds I realized fits the Texas Hold’em game perfectly. Here’s the lowdown: Enlyten strips are like a combination of those dissolvable breath mint strips you’ve seen, chewing gum, and Gatorade. Drop a few strips in your mouth or in between your gum and lip, get a flavor like chewing gum; and within 2-3 minutes get the energy and electrolytes of drinking a whole bottle of Gatorade. With Gatorade you would have to wait 30 minutes for the fluids to digest and then need to hit the restroom shortly thereafter. Next time you are in a big hand at your custom poker table, pop one of these bad boys in and your senses are heightened and focus level is raised all before the river card gets played. No joke, the stuff just works.

Read all about Enlyten and their product line here: www.allstrips.com

This video was a huge hit in Europe this past summer — I was living there and can attest. It’s Smoking Hot To say the least! So the best way to work on that poker face? Get yourself a Custom Poker Table and play at home!

Peter played great and deserved this win. In the WSOP Main Event Finale, he played his way into the final 2 going up against a strong opponent, Ivan Demidov. He managed to trap the Russian many times during heads up and simply outplayed the world’s largest poker table field. Peter played with patience. Patience is the key in a tournament that now spans over 4 months. Patience is something that must be trained and practiced seeing hand after hand come and go; this takes time.

The zero to hero stories of out of the blue experienced poker table players with vast poker tables skills all have similar beginnings. You buy a 12 pack of beer invite over your buddies, and play a round of Saturday night poker. This is where you bluff your friends, raise them all-in, and get the green bills on the table. What makes these experiences so special is that you bond with your friends, but you learn their personalities too. Are they cheap cheaters, straight up liars, or cold hard card killers? Why not go out and buy yourself a custom poker table, a case of beer, some Wal-Mart poker chips, and get down to business. You could be the next Peter Eastgate.