Poker in the Workplace: creating degenerates or successful employees?

“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?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Poker Table Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.